| Parental burnout is a particular syndrome caused by long-term exposure to parenting stress.The emergence of parental burnout leads to the decline of parents’sleep quality,the improvement of suicidal idea,and the negligence and violence of parents to their children.Moreover,parental burnout will lead to marital conflict because of parents’negligence or violence to their children,which will reduce parents’marital satisfaction.Based on self-determination theory and evolutionary psychology,this study explored the distal and proximal factors of mother’s parental burnout.In Study 1,the parental care and tenderness questionnaire（PCAT）was revised among Chinese college students.In this study,1200 questionnaires were distributed among college students and 1017 were recovered.The Empathic Concern,the Sex Role Inventory of Female,and the desire to have children were used to measure the convergent validity.In addition,92 students were randomly selected to measure test-retest reliability.（1）Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that there were two factors:protection and nurturance.The eigenvalues were 3.68 and 1.76 respectively,and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 54.38%.Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the structure fit well（χ~2/df=3.97,GFI=0.93,CFI=0.92,IFI=0.92,NFI=0.90,RMSEA=0.087,RMR=0.06）;（2）The Cronbach’sαof all dimensions between 0.68 and 0.84,the test-retest reliabilities between 0.41 and 0.81;The total scale and two subscales were significantly correlated with the Empathic Concern（r=0.34—0.44,p<0.01）,Sex Role Inventory of Female（r=0.30—0.48,p<0.01）;The nurturance and total score were correlated with the desire to have children of the nonparents（r=0.249—0.25,p<0.05）.It appears that PCAT-pn have good validity and reliability in Chinese context,and meets the requirements of measurement.In Study 2,in order to verify the structural stability of PCAT and explore the internal mechanism of parental burnout,637 mothers with at least one child in primary school were investigated by PCAT,Parental Burnout Inventory,Relative Autonomy Index and Interpersonal Behavior Questionnaire.（1）The results showed that the structure of PCAT was stable（χ~2/df=4.68,CFI=0.88,IFI=0.88,GFI=0.95,NFI=0.86,RMSEA=0.076）.（2）There were significant differences in mothers’parental care motivation,internalization of parental motivation,parental burnout,family support and thwarting in whether mothers were employed,the number of children,mothers’educational level,annual family income,and whether grandparents and fathers co-parenting in rearing;（3）There was a negative correlation between parental care motivation and parental burnout（r=-0.15,p<0.01）,a positive correlation between parental care motivation and internalization of parental motivation（r=0.20,p<0.01）,and a negative correlation between internalization of parental motivation and parental burnout（r=-0.37,p<0.01）.The internalization of parental motivation played a entirely mediating role between parental care motivation and parental burnout（β=-0.33,t=-8.88,p<0.001）（4）Family support regulated parental care motivation and affected the anterior and posterior path of parental burnout through the internalization of parental motivation（t=-2.90,p<0.01;t=-4.08,p<0.001）.When family support was low,parental care motivation had a stronger impact on the internalization of parental motivation;In high family support,the internalization of parental motivation has a stronger impact on parental burnout.Family thwarting moderated parental care and affected the parental burnout through the internalization of parental motivation（t=-3.37,p<0.001）.When family thwarting was low,parental care motivation had a stronger impact on the internalization of parental motivation.The conclusion of present research finds that during rearing children,the support from others,especially family members,has an important impact on promoting the internalization of mother’s parental motivation and alleviating parental burnout.At the same time,reducing the thwarting in the rearing process is also very important to promote the internalization of mother’s parental motivation. |
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