Maternal burnout dynamics: identifying most vulnerable groups
E. Polonetskaya, E. PervichkoIntroduction
While the first months of motherhood are traditionally considered to be the most challenging ones, it is essentially to scientifically research and understand the dynamics of the maternal burnous so the family members, the health professionals and the social services are warned accordingly.
Objectives
Our research was aimed at studying the association between maternal burnout and the age of the mother, as well as burnout dynamics during the first years of motherhood.
Methods
A maternal burnout questionnaire in Russian (the Maternal Burnout Assessment Tool, MBAT), being an adaptation of the Burnout Assessment Tool to the motherhood context, was used to assess burnout tendencies in mothers. The sample consisted of 792 Russian-speaking mothers with children up to seven years of age. Single-factor analysis of variance was used for data analysis (Kruskal-Wallis test).
Results
As shown in Table 1 below, our research demonstrates that the highest level of the mean emotional impairment score (being one of the burnout symptoms) is associated with the youngest group of mothers. No further associations of the mother’s age with the burnout symptoms were discovered.
Table 1. Long description.