Parental burnout: the child-parent relationship and the stressful role of digital parenting

This study examines the predictive power of the core parent-child relationship and the subdimensions of digital parenting awareness on specific aspects of parental burnout. Utilizing a cross-sectional quantitative design, data were collected from a sample of parents. Given the non-normal distribution of the primary dependent variables, a natural logarithmic transformation was applied to ensure statistical robustness. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the initial quality of the relationship explained significant and meaningful variance across all dimensions of parental burnout; parent-child conflict emerged as the strongest and most consistent predictor in all models. On the digital spectrum, ‘Setting a Negative Example’ stood out as the only dimension with independent predictive significance and predicted increases in the rates of ‘Emotional Exhaustion’, ‘Fatigue’ and ‘Conflict with Former Parenting Identity’. In contrast, ‘Digital Neglect’, ‘Productive Use’ and ‘Risk Protection’ did not reach statistical significance. ‘Emotional Distance’ was predicted solely by basic relational factors. These findings underscore that heightened parental burnout is associated with poorer parent-child relationship quality and problematic digital mediation, underscoring the critical need for intervention programs that foster parental resilience and healthy digital management strategies.