PM2091: Keeping the Flame Alive: Impact and Resources to Assist with Parental Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: During the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health-related emergency department visits increased by 24% in children 5-11 years old and 31% in 12-17 years of age. Similarly, the rates of parental burnout have coincided with this surge in pediatric mental health visits. Several organizations (AAP, AACAP, CHA) have declared a national emergency regarding the pediatric mental health crisis and demanded an appropriate response through government policy changes. Therefore, to truly work on this matter, parents and caregivers mental health must also be taken into consideration as it is a fundamental determiner of children’s wellbeing. Parental burnout (feelings of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and lack of self-fulfillment) may lead to increased parental frustration, anxiety, and emotional distancing from their children. It is often overlooked and if unidentified and untreated, can lead to adverse outcomes that lead to overall family distress. Our objective is to promote optimal care for children by addressing adverse social conditions related to parental burnout, including family relationships, stress, and environment at home.

Methods: Literature review (Critically appraised topic) using the key terms: COVID-19, burnout, parents, caregiver, mental health crisis, pediatrics, and management, was done to identify established risk factors for parental burnout and suggest mechanisms and resources to prevent and manage this complication.
Predominant browsers (Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic) and databases (Journal of Pediatric Psychology, SCOPUS, and Pub Med) were used. Articles were filtered by year (from 2019), English or Spanish language, related to pediatrics and oriented to mental health outcomes.

Results: A total of 14 searches yielded 971 results of which 13 met the inclusion criteria. We found that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, parental burnout was most prevalent amongst mothers, single parents, parents of school-aged children, immigrant parents, and parents of children with chronic diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these risk factors due to its specific stressors: confinement, financial worries, and uncertainty.
The American Psychological Association recommendations include exploring emotional stressors, open sharing of feelings about burnout to facilitate social support, reframing perspectives (rethink difficulty as challenges), encouraging small positive changes, and restructuring unrealistic parental expectations. Additionally, taking microbreaks for self-care as well as practicing behavioral activation by investigating low stake activities that encourage reconnection to meaningful aspects of parenting.

Conclusion: Burnout is the result of an imbalance between stress and exposure to draining environments compared to the resources to cope with it. The pandemic has tilted the scale unfavorably, thus as common as burnout is, parents and their children can benefit from strategies recommended by psychologists to decrease their risk and alleviate its manifestations.