Fathers’ Parenting Stress,Parenting Styles And The Junior High School Students’ Problem Behavior:The Mediating Role Of Parental Burnout

When the long-term accumulation of parenting stress exceeds the coping level of individual resources,individuals are at risk of parental burnout,which leads to a series of negative symptoms,such as exhaustion,emotional alienation from children,and decreased parenting efficacy and so on.In recent years,the research on parental burnout has developed rapidly,but it mainly focuses on the measurement,antecedents and the impact on parents themselves.The research on the relationship between parental burnout and the physical and mental development of parenting subjects is still in at the initial stage.At the same time,the present parental burnout focuses on the investigation of the mother group,while the problem of parental burnout of the father group has not received enough attention.This study takes junior high school students and their fathers as the research objects.On the one hand,it examines the predictive effect of parenting stress and parenting style on father’s parental burnout,on the other hand,it examines the relationship between parental burnout and junior high school students’ problem behaviors,and then explores the mediating role of parental burnout between father’s parenting stress,parenting style and junior high school students’ problem behaviors,In order to provide theoretical support and practical basis for the intervention of parental burnout and problem behaviors of junior high school students,we examine the causes of parental burnout and its influence on the consequences in a systematic framework.Using convenient sampling method,236 students and their fathers in grade 7 of a junior high school in Henan were selected as the investigation objects to conduct paired data collection.Time1 measures parenting stress and parenting style,time 2 measures parental burnout,and time 3measures problem behaviors.SPSS 22.0 and Amos 24.0 were used to process the data,mainly using statistical methods such as one-way ANOVA,Pearson correlation analysis,Amos path analysis,Bootstrap mediation effect test,etc.The results showed that:(1)Paternal parenting stress and negative parenting style positively predicted parental burnout,while paternal positive parenting style negatively predicted parental burnout.(2)Parental burnout positively and significantly predicted problem behaviors of junior high school students;(3)Parental burnout plays a mediating role in the relationship between parenting stress,negative parenting style,and problem behaviors of junior high school students.Although the results of this study can help with the prevention of paternal parental burnout and junior high school students’ behavior problems,but also some deficiencies.Future research may consider diversity selecting subjects,such as geography,age,and prolong the time interval between data collection,expand the research scope of paternal parental burnout,and further explore the relationship between paternal parental burnout and junior high school students’ problem behaviors.