TY - JOUR

T1 - Gender Equality and Maternal Burnout

T2 - A 40-Country Study

AU - Roskam, Isabelle

AU - Gallée, Laura

AU - Aguiar, Joyce

AU - Akgun, Ege

AU - Arena, Andrew

AU - Arikan, Gizem

AU - Aunola, Kaisa

AU - Bader, Michel

AU - Barham, Elizabeth J.

AU - Besson, Eliane

AU - Beyers, Wim

AU - Boujut, Emilie

AU - Brianda, Maria Elena

AU - Brytek-Matera, Anna

AU - Carbonneau, Noémie

AU - César, Filipa

AU - Chen, Bin Bin

AU - Dorard, Géraldine

AU - dos Santos Elias, Luciana Carla

AU - Dunsmuir, Sandra

AU - Egorova, Natalia

AU - Favez, Nicolas

AU - Fontaine, Anne Marie

AU - Foran, Heather

AU - Fricke, Julia

AU - Furutani, Kaichiro

AU - Gannagé, Myrna

AU - Gaspar, Maria

AU - Godbout, Lucie

AU - Goldenberg, Amit

AU - Gross, James J.

AU - Gurza, Maria Ancuta

AU - Hashmi, Muhammad Aamir

AU - Helmy, Mai

AU - Trang Huynh, Mai

AU - Kaneza, Emerence

AU - Kawamoto, Taishi

AU - Kellou, Nassima

AU - Medjahdi, Oussama

AU - Knezevic, Goran

AU - Lazarevic, Ljiljana B.

AU - Le Vigouroux, Sarah

AU - Lebert-Charron, Astrid

AU - Leme, Vanessa

AU - Lin, Gao Xian

AU - MacCann, Carolyn

AU - Manrique-Millones, Denisse

AU - Matias, Marisa

AU - Miranda-Orrego, María Isabel

AU - Miscioscia, Marina

AU - Morgades-Bamba, Clara

AU - Mousavi, Seyyedeh Fatemeh

AU - Moutassem-Mimouni, Badra

AU - Muntean, Ana

AU - Murphy, Hugh

AU - Ndayizigiye, Alexis

AU - Ngnombouowo Tenkue, Josué

AU - Olderbak, Sally

AU - Ornawka, Sophie

AU - Oyarce-Cadiz, Daniela

AU - Pérez-Díaz, Pablo A.

AU - Petrides, Konstantinos V.

AU - Pineda-Marin, Claudia

AU - Prikhidko, Alena

AU - Salinas-Quiroz, Fernando

AU - Sánchez-Rodríguez, Raquel

AU - Sarrionandia, Ainize

AU - Scola, Céline

AU - Simonelli, Alessandra

AU - Soenens, Bart

AU - Sorbring, Emma

AU - Sorkkila, Matilda

AU - Schrooyen, Charlotte

AU - Stănculescu, Elena

AU - Starchenkova, Elena

AU - Szczygiel, Dorota

AU - Tri, Thi Minh Thuy

AU - Tremblay, Mélissa

AU - Ustundag-Budak, Ayse Meltem

AU - Valdés Pacheco, Maday

AU - van Bakel, Hedwig

AU - Verhofstadt, Lesley

AU - Wendland, Jaqueline

AU - Yotanyamaneewong, Saengduean

AU - Mikolajczak, Moïra

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2022/2

Y1 - 2022/2

N2 - In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even in the most egalitarian countries. We hypothesized that experiencing inequality in parenting when one holds egalitarian values and raising a child in a country characterized by a high level of gender equality in other areas, increases mothers’ psychological distress in the specific area of parenting. Multilevel modeling analyses computed among 11,538 mothers from 40 countries confirmed this prediction: high egalitarian values at the individual level and high gender equality at the societal level are associated with higher burnout levels in mothers. The associations hold beyond differences in sociodemographic characteristics at the individual level and beyond economic disparities at the societal level. These findings show the importance of egalitarian values and gender equality and their paradoxical effect when inequalities are still present in specific areas as parenting. This study reveals the crucial need to act not only at the micro level but also at the macro level to promote gender equality in parenting and prevent parental burnout.

AB - In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even in the most egalitarian countries. We hypothesized that experiencing inequality in parenting when one holds egalitarian values and raising a child in a country characterized by a high level of gender equality in other areas, increases mothers’ psychological distress in the specific area of parenting. Multilevel modeling analyses computed among 11,538 mothers from 40 countries confirmed this prediction: high egalitarian values at the individual level and high gender equality at the societal level are associated with higher burnout levels in mothers. The associations hold beyond differences in sociodemographic characteristics at the individual level and beyond economic disparities at the societal level. These findings show the importance of egalitarian values and gender equality and their paradoxical effect when inequalities are still present in specific areas as parenting. This study reveals the crucial need to act not only at the micro level but also at the macro level to promote gender equality in parenting and prevent parental burnout.

KW - culture

KW - egalitarian values

KW - family policies

KW - gender equality paradox

KW - parental burnout

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125801434&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/3473b6a0-cb3e-3ed2-baac-79f3f61b780c/

U2 - 10.1177/00220221211072813

DO - 10.1177/00220221211072813

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85125801434

VL - 53

SP - 157

EP - 178

JO - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

JF - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

SN - 0022-0221

IS - 2

ER -