The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship between the Personality Traits of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness and Parental Burnout in Mothers of Tehran City during 2022-2023: A Descriptive Study

Parenting responsibilities for mothers as the main caregivers is a stressful experience that can lead to parental burnout. Therefore, it seems necessary to investigate the underlying factors that increase the risk of maternal burnout. The present study aimed to determine the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between personality traits of neuroticism and conscientiousness and parental burnout in mothers of Tehran City.

In current descriptive research, the sample size included 286 mothers in Tehran in the period of 2022-2023, who were selected by convenience sampling method. Roskam's Parental Burnout Questionnaire, Gross and John's Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Costa and McCrae's Five-Factor Personality Questionnaire were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by Pearson’s and path analysis method.

The mean and standard deviation of the age of the examined mothers was 35.78±8.43 years. The results of mediation analysis showed that the direct and indirect relationships between neuroticism and parental burnout through suppression were significant (β=0.194, β=0.069, p<0.01, respectively). Also, the direct and indirect relationships between conscientiousness and parental burnout through reappraisal were significant (β=-0.216, β=-0.078, p<0.05, respectively). Therefore, suppression in the relationship between neuroticism and parental burnout and also reappraisal in the relationship between conscientiousness and parental burnout had a complementary partial mediating role.

The present research emphasizes the important role of emotional regulation strategies that link personality traits to parental burnout and also the importance of paying attention to teaching emotional skills to mothers.