Associations between parenting practices and parental burnout, mental health and children’s externalising behaviours

This study surveyed 140 Australian caregivers who had been referred to parenting support programs, to examine the relationship between parental burnout and parental behaviours in ‘at-risk’ families. Higher levels of parental burnout were associated with less positive (e.g. warm and supportive) and more negative (e.g. hostile or coercive) parenting behaviours. Children’s challenging behaviours and parental mental health symptoms were associated with increased negative parenting.

Why is this important?

• Parents may experience high levels of stress when they are involved with child protection or parenting support services.
• Understanding how parental burnout uniquely affects parenting may help practitioners provide more targeted support.

What did they do?

• The study included 140 Australian caregivers who were referred to a parenting support program because of child abuse or neglect of their young children (aged 2–7 years), because they were experiencing stress, because they were caring for a child with externalising behaviours.
  • Although the authors do not provide a specific definition or examples, externalising behaviours are commonly understood as challenging behaviours directed toward the environment or other people. These include aggression, defiance and breaking rules. The authors aimed to determine if higher levels of parental burnout in at-risk families are associated with increased negative parenting (e.g. hostility/rejection, coercion) and decreased positive parenting behaviours (e.g. warmth/involvement, autonomy, support of the child).
  • Burnout was measured by capturing caregiver self-reported levels of exhaustion, perceived decline in quality or efficacy as a parent, feelings of being fed-up and emotionally distancing from the child.
• Caregivers completed an online survey with measures on burnout, parental mental health symptoms, positive and negative parental behaviours, and children’s externalising behaviours.

What did they find?

• Higher levels of parental burnout were uniquely associated with less positive and more negative parenting. This means that the association between burnout and parenting behaviours remained even after accounting for parental mental health symptoms and children’s externalising behaviours.
• Different aspects of burnout were associated with specific parenting behaviours. For example, parents who felt emotionally distant from their children reported fewer warm and positive parenting behaviours. Parents who felt exhausted reported more negative parenting behaviours, such as coercion and hostility. Parents who perceived a decline in their parenting quality and skills reported both fewer positive and more negative parenting behaviours.
• Children’s externalising behaviours were associated with more negative parenting (e.g. hostility and coercion), and parental mental health symptoms were associated with less positive parenting (e.g. less warmth).

What does this mean for practice?

• Parental burnout should be recognised by practitioners as a distinct issue that may affect the quality of parenting, especially for at-risk families.
• Identifying and addressing signs of burnout (e.g. exhaustion, emotional distancing) may help improve positive parenting practices and decrease negative parenting practices.
• Practitioners may need to offer parental support strategies that address multiple factors at once (e.g. parental wellbeing and children’s behaviour).

This summary is one of the child mental health research highlights for May 2026, prepared by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS).