Parental Burnout Among Married Parents in Urban Pakistan: Prevalence, Sociodemographic Correlates, and Emotional Regulation Patterns — A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Parental burnout is a public health issue that is a growing concern because it is a state of parental role extinction, emotional distance from the children and a general feeling of incompetence. Although its adverse effects are well documented such as child neglect and breakdown in family bonding, there is almost no available empirical evidence on this issue in a collectivist society like Pakistan having a diverse socio-cultural risk profile of more than 230 million population.

Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to estimate the prevalence of parental burn out among married parents in urban Lahore, to explore the relationship between parental burnout and sociodemographic correlates (gender, education, professional activity, financial status) and to determine the link between parental burnout and emotion regulation.

Methods: The study used a convenience sampling technique to recruit a total of 500 married parents (51.2% mothers and 48.8% fathers) with at least one child aged 2-12 years from community centers, school networks, and parenting groups in Lahore between June and October 2025. Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA; α = .985) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; α = .944) were completed by trained interviewers. For analysis, Pearson correlations, point-biserial correlations and chi-square tests were employed. A clinically significant prevalence of 27.2% was seen with 15.2% in a mild, 6.2% in a moderate, and 5.8% in a severe burnout level. There was a strong negative correlation between emotion regulation and parental burnout (r = −.727, p < .001). Burnout also was marginally slightly associated with gender (r = .128, p = .004) with mothers reporting marginally higher scores. The financial condition was weakly but significantly related to burnout (r = .109, p = .015), whereas professional activity and educational level were not related to burnout.

Conclusion: Over a quarter of urban Pakistani parents exhibited clinically significant parental burnout, and emotion regulation proved to be the most significant protective factor. The results highlight the pressing need for culturally sensitive mental health interventions and policy interventions for parents in Pakistan.