Lin Yuanting, Wang Yan, Lin Chunhui, Ni Qingnan, Jia Ruolin, Chang Yanling, Qi YuanPing
Pediatric Rehabilitation Department, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
Pediatric Rehabilitation Department, Qinghai Women and Children's Hospital, Xining, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 9;14:1139618. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139618. eCollection 2023.
Parental burnout is a concept that reflects the emotional exhaustion and emotional distance of parents from children due to their inability to cope with the pressure of parenting. It has been confirmed that parents of autistic children are at higher risk for parental burnout. Additional research has suggested a relationship between parental burnout and parents' personality traits. However, the relationship between alexithymia, an independent personality factor, with parental burnout is little to none.
To look into the connection between parental burnout and alexithymia among parents of autistic children.
Three hundred and one parents were approached for recruitment and data were collected from 203 parents through a cross-sectional survey assessing parental burnout, alexithymia status, and perceived social support. Because the data is not normally distributed, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient rho(p) was used to assess the correlation between the variables; and then using AMOS to analyze the mediating effects of perceived social support and the moderating effect of gender.
The result showed that (1) There is a negative association between alexithymia with parental burnout ( = 0.6, < 0.01), while perceive social support was the negative predictor of alexithymia ( = -0.45, < 0.01) and parental burnout ( = -0.26, < 0.01); (2) perceive social support partially mediated the relationship between alexithymia and parental burnout of parents of autistic children, which can explain 16.3% of the total effect; (3) Gender plays a moderating role in the first half of the indirect effect of alexithymia on parental burnout, as evidenced by the significant difference in path coefficients between the male and female models (male: = -0.10, < 0.05; female: = -0.60, < ).
Health professionals and policymakers should be aware of parental burnout among parents of autistic children in China and take early intervention steps. Furthermore, they should recognize the negative impact of alexithymia and the positive impact of social support when developing plans to alleviate parental burnout in children with autism, with a particular focus on mothers with alexithymia, who are more likely to experience low social support and burnout than fathers with alexithymia.
父母倦怠是一个反映父母因无法应对育儿压力而产生的情感疲惫以及与孩子情感疏离的概念。已有研究证实，自闭症儿童的父母出现父母倦怠的风险更高。另外的研究表明父母倦怠与父母的人格特质之间存在关联。然而，作为一个独立人格因素的述情障碍与父母倦怠之间的关系几乎不存在相关研究。
探究自闭症儿童父母的父母倦怠与述情障碍之间的联系。
招募了301名家长，并通过横断面调查从203名家长那里收集数据，该调查评估了父母倦怠、述情障碍状况和感知到的社会支持。由于数据呈非正态分布，因此使用斯皮尔曼等级相关系数rho(p)来评估变量之间的相关性；然后使用AMOS分析感知到的社会支持的中介作用和性别的调节作用。
结果显示：(1) 述情障碍与父母倦怠之间存在负相关 ( = 0.6, < 0.01)，而感知到的社会支持是述情障碍 ( = -0.45, < 0.01) 和父母倦怠 ( = -0.26, < 0.01) 的负向预测因子；(2) 感知到的社会支持部分中介了自闭症儿童父母的述情障碍与父母倦怠之间的关系，这可以解释总效应的16.3%；(3) 性别在述情障碍对父母倦怠的间接效应前半段中起调节作用，这一点在男性和女性模型的路径系数上有显著差异得到证明（男性： = -0.10, < 0.05；女性： = -0.60, < ）。
卫生专业人员和政策制定者应意识到中国自闭症儿童父母中的父母倦怠现象，并尽早采取干预措施。此外，在制定减轻自闭症儿童父母倦怠的计划时，他们应认识到述情障碍的负面影响和社会支持的积极影响，尤其要关注有述情障碍的母亲，她们比有述情障碍的父亲更有可能经历低社会支持和倦怠。
