Exhausted Minds: Maternal Reflective Functioning and Parental Burnout in Mothers of Young Children in A One‐Year Longitudinal Study
Exhausted Minds: Maternal Reflective Functioning and Parental Burnout in Mothers of Young Children in A One‐Year Longitudinal Study
StatusPost-Print
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Authors
Kamza, Anna
Luyten, Patrick
Duras, Jakub
Carone, Nicola
Dzielińska, Michalina
Piotrowski, Konrad
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Date
2026-05-08
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Journal of Marriage and Family
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0022-2445
1741-3737
1741-3737
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2026-05-12
Abstract PL
Abstract EN
Objective: This 12-month longitudinal study with three waves of data collection examined reciprocal relationships betweenparental reflective functioning (PRF)—the capacity to understand one's child's mental states—dimensions and parental burnoutin mothers of young children.
Background: Parental burnout affects approximately 3%–8% of mothers in Western populations, with particularly high rates inPoland, yet factors that explain parental burnout remain poorly understood. PRF may be an important factor, but no longitudinalresearch has examined the relationships between parental burnout and PRF over time.
Method: This three-wave longitudinal study is the first to examine PRF–burnout relationships over a one-year period. Usingcross-lagged panel models (CLPM) and random-intercept CLPM (RI- CLPM), we modeled stable between-person differencesfrom dynamic within-person processes in the longitudinal associations between parental burnout and three PRF dimensions (i.e., prementalizing modes, certainty about child's mental states, and interest/curiosity in mental states) in 988 Polish mothersof children aged 0–5 years 12 months.
Results: Findings revealed considerable heterogeneity in PRF–burnout relationships. Prementalizing modes showed unidirec-tional effects, increasing only in response to chronic parental exhaustion rather than predicting parental burnout. Certaintyabout mental states demonstrated a bidirectional relationship with maternal burnout, driven by stable between-person differ-ences in both constructs. Maternal interest and curiosity predicted increases in parental burnout, with lower curiosity associatedwith higher parental burnout at both the between-person and within-person levels.
Conclusion: Different aspects of maternal mentalization predict parental burnout through distinct longitudinal patterns thatchallenge prevailing theoretical frameworks.
Implications: These findings provide the first longitudinal evidence that maternal curiosity about the child's mental states andchronic uncertainty may represent key psychological processes implicated in vulnerability to parental burnout, with potentialimplications for prevention and family support.
Abstract other
Keywords PL
Keywords EN
mental health
mothers
parental burnout
parenting
parental reflective functioning
mothers
parental burnout
parenting
parental reflective functioning
Keywords other
Sustainable Development Goals
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