Protective and Risk Factors Contributing to Pandemic Crisis Parental Burnout.

The work main purposes were to identify the sources of problems and demands causing parental burnout and to specify the resources/support factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was based on the Balance Theory of Risk and Support/Resource Factors (BR Model) by Mikolajczak and Roskam. The study explored the predictive value of socio-economic variables, religiosity, the meaning of life, positivity, perceived social support, family functionality, and balance between risks and resources in parental burnout using the structural equation modelling method on a sample of 337 parents. The presence of children's learning difficulties and behavioural problems are the most important risk factors and aggravate parental burnout, and the presence of a meaning of life, support coming from the family, family affection, and relationship lengths are the main protective resources, allowing parental burnout to decrease during the pandemic crisis. The findings are instructive for both theory and practice. The study successfully operationalised the BR model-the model obtained from the path analysis fits well, confirms the structure of parental burnout theory, and demonstrates the appropriateness of the application of BR theory in crisis conditions. The most effective way to help parents in a crisis situation is (in addition to psychological support) the effective provision of specialist help for children, resulting in a reduced risk of an unfavourable balance between demands and family resources. The family- or parent-oriented interventions that address professional help in problems with children can be the most effective at reducing the negative consequences of a pandemic on children and their parents. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of investing in healthcare infrastructures.