The big five personality traits and parental burnout

Parenting, which is a central part of many adults’ lives, is stimulating and rich in affect, sometimes negative. Parental burnout is an emotional disorder related to the context of parenthood (Roskam, Raes, & Mikolajczak, 2016). Although many studies have investigated the relationship between personality traits and parental behaviors (see Prinzie, Stams, Dekovic, Reijntjes, & Belsky, 2009) or emotions (eg, DeNeve & Cooper, 1998; Larsen & Ketelaar, 1991), no one questions the influence of personality on parental burnout. To better identify the relationships between these individual characteristics and this syndrome, we questioned 1723 parents (1499 mothers) ranging in age from 20 to 75 years (M = 40 years, SD = 8 years and 3 months). Results indicated that three personality traits are linked to this syndrome. A high level of neuroticism, a low level of conscientiousness, and a low level of agreeableness were all found to be risk factors for burnout among the parents of unselected children. Parents who have difficulty initiating and maintaining positive affective relations with their child(ren) (high neuroticism), identifying and responding to their child(ren)’s needs (low agreeableness), or providing their child(ren) with a structured and coherent environment (low conscientiousness) are more likely to experience parental burnout syndrome (Le Vigouroux, Scola, Roskam, Mikolajczak, & Raes, 2017).