Marital satisfaction and parenting styles in One’s Own Family in relation to Occupational Burnout

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between parenting styles adopted by parents toward their children, marital well-being, and the level of occupational burnout. Three hypotheses were formulated: (H1) democratic and liberal-affectionate parenting styles are associated with lower levels of occupational burnout; (H2) autocratic and liberal-non-affectionate parenting styles are associated with higher levels of burnout; and (H3) higher marital well-being co-occurs with lower intensity of occupational burnout. Methods: The study involved 417 married individuals with at least one child (266 women and 151 men), aged between 21 and 63 years (M = 41). The following research instruments were administered: the Marital Quality Questionnaire (KDM-2; M. Plopa & J. Rostowski), the Parenting Styles Analysis – Own Family Questionnaire (M. Ryś), and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI; E. Demerouti et al.; Polish adaptation by T. Chirkowska-Smolak). In the present sample, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients indicated high internal consistency of the applied measures (e.g., intimacy α = 0,88; marital satisfaction α = 0,94; overall OLBI α = 0,83). Although the distribution of the data slightly deviated from normality, as indicated by the Shapiro–Wilk and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests, skewness and kurtosis values remained within the acceptable ±2 range, which justified the use of Pearson’s r correlation coefficients in the hypothesis testing procedure. Results: All three hypotheses were supported empirically. Higher levels of democratic and liberal-affectionate parenting styles were associated with lower levels of occupational burnout, whereas autocratic and liberal-non-affectionate styles showed positive correlations with burnout, with moderate effect sizes observed for the latter relationships. Furthermore, higher marital well-being–reflected in greater intimacy, self-fulfilment, and similarity between partners, alongside lower levels of disappointment–was associated with lower levels of exhaustion and disengagement at work. Conclusions: The findings confirm the interrelationship between family-role functioning and occupational burnout. Parenting styles based on dialogue, empathy, and emotional support, combined with high marital well-being, may constitute protective factors against the negative consequences of chronic occupational stress. From a practical perspective, burnout prevention programmes should incorporate family-related dimensions, including the quality of partner communication, parenting competencies, and mutual emotional support.