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International audience; Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism.Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and parental burnout measured at the individual level in 36 countries (16,059 parents). Results The results revealed three mediating mechanisms, that is, self-discrepancies between socially prescribed and actual parental selves, high agency and self-directed socialization goals, and low parental task sharing, by which individualism leads to an increased risk of burnout among parents.Conclusion The results confirm that the three mediators under consideration are all involved, and that mediation was higher for self-discrepancies between socially prescribed and actual parental selves, then parental task sharing, and lastly selfdirected socialization goals. The results provide some important indications of how to prevent parental burnout at the societal level in Western countries.

International audience; In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even in the most egalitarian countries. We hypothesized that experiencing inequality in parenting when one holds egalitarian values and raising a child in a country characterized by a high level of gender equality in other areas, increases mothers’ psychological distress in the specific area of parenting. Multilevel modeling analyses computed among 11,538 mothers from 40 countries confirmed this prediction: high egalitarian values at the individual level and high gender equality at the societal level are associated with higher burnout levels in mothers. The associations hold beyond differences in sociodemographic characteristics at the individual level and beyond economic disparities at the societal level. These findings show the importance of egalitarian values and gender equality and their paradoxical effect when inequalities are still present in specific areas as parenting. This study reveals the crucial need to act not only at the micro level but also at the macro level to promote gender equality in parenting and prevent parental burnout.

Mortality salience (MS) has been shown to lead to derogation of others with dissimilar worldviews, yet recent research has shown that Asian-Americans who presumably adopt an interdependent self-construal (SC) tend to reveal greater tolerance after MS induction. In the present study, we demonstrated that Japanese individuals who are high on interdependent SC indeed show greater tolerance toward worldview-threatening other in the MS (vs control) condition, thus replicating the prior research. Extending this research, we also found that interdependent people’s tolerance toward worldview-threatening other was mediated by increased activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in the MS condition. These data suggested that when exposed to death-related stimuli, highly interdependent individuals may spontaneously activate their neural self-control system which may serve to increase tolerance toward others.

What is it to be “an ideal parent”? Does the answer differ across countries and social classes? To answer these questions in a way that minimizes bias and ethnocentrism, we used open-ended questions to explore ideal-parent beliefs among 8,357 mothers and 3,517 fathers from 37 countries. Leximancer Semantic Network Analysis was utilized to first determine parenting culture zones (i.e., countries with shared ideal-parent beliefs) and then extract the predominant themes and concepts in each culture zone. The results yielded specific types of ideal-parent beliefs in five parenting culture zones: being “responsible and children/family-focused” for Asian parents, being “responsible and proper demeanor-focused” for African parents, and being “loving and responsible” for Hispanic-Italian parents. Although the most important themes and concepts were the same in the final two zones—being “loving and patient,” there were subtle differences: English-speaking, European Union, and Russian parents emphasized “being caring,” while French-speaking parents valued “listening” or being “present.” Ideal-parent beliefs also differed by education levels within culture zones, but no general pattern was discerned across culture zones. These findings suggest that the country in which parents were born cannot fully explain their differences in ideal-parent beliefs and that differences arising from social class or education level cannot be dismissed. Future research should consider how these differences affect the validity of the measurements in question and how they can be incorporated into parenting intervention research within and across cultures.

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71% mothers; M(age) = 39.20) and showed that the prevalence of parental burnout varies dramatically across countries. Analyses of cultural values revealed that individualistic cultures, in particular, displayed a noticeably higher prevalence and mean level of parental burnout. Indeed, individualism plays a larger role in parental burnout than either economic inequalities across countries, or any other individual and family characteristic examined so far, including the number and age of children and the number of hours spent with them. These results suggest that cultural values in Western countries may put parents under heightened levels of stress. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-020-00028-4.

We examined the factorial structure and validity of a Japanese version of the Parental Burnout Assessment, the PBA‐J, with 1,500 Japanese parents. The Parental Burnout Assessment measures burnout using four dimensions: exhaustion in one's parental role, contrast in parental self, feelings of being fed up, and emotional distancing. Confirmatory factor analysis on the PBA‐J supported a four‐factor model. Multiple‐group structural equation modeling with parent participants was supported for the factor‐loading invariance model. Mothers had higher parental burnout scores than fathers. We found moderate‐to‐strong correlation coefficients between the PBA‐J and the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI‐J; the comparative burnout measure), and weak‐to‐moderate correlation coefficients between the PBA‐J and job burnout, neuroticism, co‐parenting disagreement, and family disorganization. The PBA‐J was correlated with parental perfectionism, particularly with concern over mistakes rather than sociodemographic variables. Overall, our findings provide initial evidence for the validity of the PBA‐J.

The present study investigated a possible mediating effect of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) on the relationship between perfectionism and psychological adjustment/maladjustment as well as the unique and common effects of perfectionism dimensions—personal standards (PS) and concern over mistakes (CM)—on these constructs. Five hundred mothers participated an online survey, completing measures of perfectionism (PS and CM), IU, and psychological adjustment/maladjustment (life satisfaction, depression, and rearing stress). We found that both PS and CM were positively correlated with IU. Mediation analyses indicated that IU mediated the relationship between CM and psychological adjustment/maladjustment regardless of whether PS were partialled out. In contrast, IU had a suppression effect on the relationship between PS and psychological adjustment/maladjustment, but only when CM was not partialled out. Commonality regression analysis revealed that the unique effect of PS on IU (

Parenting is a precious experience and also a very hard task, which could result in parental burnout for some parents. The present study sought to validate a Japanese version of the Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI-J) by replicating and extending the pioneering work of Roskam et al. (2017). We conducted a web survey (N = 1200) to first validate the PBI-J and second to investigate the association between the PBI-J and perfectionism as a new interrelation. Similar to the prior study of Roskam et al. (2017), confirmatory factor analysis supported a model of three-factor structure of the PBI-J: emotional exhaustion, lack of personal accomplishment, and emotional distancing. In addition, we found low to moderate correlations of parental burnout with job burnout, parental stress, and depression. These findings provided initial evidence for validity of the PBI-J and suggested that parental burnout appeared to be different from job burnout. Our further evaluation of perfectionism confirmed such a difference between parental and job burnout by showing that parental perfectionism [i.e., combination of parental personal standards (PS) and parental concern over mistakes (CM)] has a unique contribution to parental burnout than does job perfectionism (i.e., combination of job PS and job CM). In addition, CM was positively correlated with burnout in both domains whereas the associations between PS and burnout were more complex. Finally, the proportion of parents experiencing burnout was estimated to lie somewhere between 4.2 and 17.3% in Japan. Overall, the present study confirmed preliminary validity of the PBI-J and found that parental perfectionism is one of the vulnerability factors in parental burnout.

Social psychological studies have shown that an experience of threat such as an encounter with death-related stimuli and social exclusion results in tuning toward positive emotional information. Neuroimaging studies have also begun to uncover the neural basis of threat coping, and in this literature, the activity of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) has been suggested to play a key role in detection and regulation of threats. Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), we examined the activity of rVLPFC while participants were subliminally primed with the concept of “death” or the control concept “pain”. We found greater rVLPFC activities relative to the prior baseline in the death prime condition, and furthermore, these activities negatively correlated with the evaluation of the positive (but not negative) essay. These data provide initial evidence to suggest that lesser neuronal regulation of threat, when it is first encountered, may lead to subsequent regulation by affect tuning.

This study used the ‘Settoku Nattoku Game’ (SNG) to examine the effect of general trust on the formation of new relationships after social exclusion. The SNG is a game in which half of the players (the Persuaders) must try to convince the other half (the Persuaded) that a statement is true during an initial session (S1). The two groups then switch roles in a second session (S2). Following the SNG protocol, our dependent variable was the number of people sought out as interaction partners during S2. The frequency of being selected as an interaction partner by others during S1 (i.e. having experienced social exclusion or inclusion) significantly affected the number of interaction partners selected during S2. Those who were excluded during S1 engaged in fewer interactions with others during S2. However, this negative effect of social exclusion on subsequent interactions was moderated by general trust. After social exclusion, people low in general trust interacted less with others during S2 as compared to those who were included, but there was no such relationship for people high in general trust. On the contrary, socially excluded individuals high in general trust actively sought to build new relationships with those whom they did not interact with during S1. The relationship between general trust and interactions with others after a social exclusion experience is further discussed.

This study investigated the effects of rumination (reflective pondering and brooding) on automatic thoughts (both negative and positive) and depressive symptoms. University students (N=183; 96 men) completed the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Revised (ATQ-R), and Response Style Scale (RSS). We conducted a path analysis which included gender as a factor. The results revealed that brooding was associated with negative automatic thoughts. Negative automatic thoughts contributed to the aggravation of depressive symptoms. In contrast, reflective pondering was associated with positive automatic thoughts. Positive automatic thoughts contributed to the reduction of depressive symptoms. These results indicate that rumination does not affect depressive symptoms directly. We suggest that rumination affects depressive symptoms indirectly through automatic thoughts, and that there are gender differences in the influence process.

Substantial research links economic adversity to poor coping in stressful or threatening environments. Neuroimaging studies suggest that activation of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays a key role in self-control, and it seems that individual differences in neurocognitive systems underlying self-control are determined in part by subjective childhood socioeconomic status (SES). The present study used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to investigate whether subjective childhood SES moderates rVLPFC activity during one form of threatening environment: social exclusion. Twenty-five undergraduates participated in a NIRS session in which they were socially included and then excluded during an online ball-tossing game. Lower subjective childhood SES was associated with higher levels of social distress and lower levels of rVLPFC activity during social exclusion. The present findings suggest that early family environments are reliably associated with deficits in offspring coping resources and processes, as well as with difficulties in regulating interpersonal circumstances.

Social exclusion often evokes social pain in excluded individuals. Although this pain can trigger various interpersonal difficulties (e.g., aggression, depression), it is still unclear which psychological approach might best help to regulate social pain. However, recent work suggests that temporal distance helps to facilitate adaptive coping and self-control. The present study measured ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) activity during social exclusion, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to examine the functional relationship between "temporal distance approach," or thinking about the distant future, and the social pain regulation process. Participants that imagined the distant future, next year, and beyond, felt less social pain and showed increased right (r)VLPFC activity during social exclusion, as compared to imagining events in the near future, such as tonight and tomorrow. Furthermore, rVLPFC activity mediated the relationship between temporal distance and social pain. On the basis of these findings, the effect of temporal distance on the process of adaptation after social exclusion is discussed. It is suggested that temporal distance moderates the process of regulating the impact of social exclusion.

Human beings have a strong fundamental need to form and maintain relationships. Social exclusion therefore evokes social pain in excluded individuals, whereas social inclusion evokes pleasure in those individuals who are included. The present study used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to investigate whether individual differences in personality, specifically differences in behavioral inhibition and activation system (BIS and BAS) functioning, affect the experiences of social pleasure and pain. Thirty-seven undergraduates participated in an NIRS session that involved both social rejection and inclusion during an online ball-tossing game. People with greater BIS sensitivity experienced more social pain during social exclusion, while people with greater BAS sensitivity reported more social pleasure during social inclusion. BIS sensitivity was negatively correlated with ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) activity during social exclusion. Finally, VLPFC activity partially mediated the relationship between BIS sensitivity and social pain experienced during social exclusion.

Social exclusion evokes social pain in excluded individuals. Neuroimaging studies suggest that this social pain is associated with activation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), with further regulation of social pain being reflected in activation of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC). The present study focused on factors that influence activation of the rVLPFC during social exclusion. We conducted a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) experiment to investigate whether two psychosocial resources (general trust and trait self-esteem) increase rVLPFC activity during social exclusion, thereby buffering against social pain. Thirty-seven undergraduates participated in an NIRS session in which they were socially rejected during an online ball-tossing game. Levels of general trust and trait self-esteem were negatively correlated with self-reported social pain in the exclusion conditions. Furthermore, general trust was positively correlated with rVLPFC activity, although there was no such relationship with self-esteem. rVLPFC activity mediated the relationship between general trust levels and social pain. The rVLPFC appears to be critical for the regulation of social pain. Taken together, these findings suggest that general trust and trait self-esteem probably have different impacts at different times over the course of a series of adaptive processes, all geared toward the modulation of social pain.