To Örebro University

In Sweden, parental burnout has been examined among parents of children with serious diseases(e.g., cancer) and/or chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes). However, there is a lack of studies on nonclinical samples of parents and studies that compare parents of children with and without diseases.

Sweden is a country with a well-developed social support system, where school and health care are covered by taxes and not by individuals themselves. Support to parents is available through social services, care centers, and through the child's school. This support can be universal (i.e., cover allparents), aimed (i.e., focus on certain at-risk groups), or at an individual level. In other words, Sweden offers much support to parents in general and not only to parents of children with a seriousillness/disease. Such support can have a positive influence on parents' health and competence, inboth of these parental samples. International research on non-clinical samples has been shown that certain parental and family characteristics are influential for parents' health and well-being. However, a potential gap between actual (and perceived) demands on parents and their individual and contextual resources seems to be an important factor for the development of parental burnout. Based on these premises, this study focuses on the association between parental burnout on the one hand and parents' health and sense of competence on the other, among mothers of children with and without a diagnosis. We will also perform analyses concerning potential predictors of parental burnout covering different parental and family characteristics. Material has been collected from 425 mothers in Sweden. About 20% of these mothers have at least one child with some diagnosis (e.g.,Autism, ADHD), 10% are born outside of Sweden, and 85% are working outside of the home. In general, mothers who are working outside of the home spend less time with their children than mothers without a job (six hours compared to 10 hours), but there were no differences in time spent with their children between mothers of children with and without a diagnosis. Using path analysis in Mplus, we will examine both predictors (e.g., ethnicity, child's diagnosis, parental work situation) and outcomes (parents' health and sense of competence) of parental burnout. This analysis will point outrisk as well as protection factors for parental burnout—on an individual and family level—and will show whether there is a difference in health problems and parental competence between parents of children with and without a diagnosis.