The study was designed to examine whether trait emotional intelligence would moderate the impact of negative emotions at work on job burnout. A total of 188 female nurses participated in this study and completed measures of trait affectivity, emotional intelligence, anger and sadness at work, and burnout. The results revealed significant and positive relationships between both types of negative emotions and burnout above and beyond demographics and the nurses’ trait affectivity. Importantly, the study demonstrated that trait emotional intelligence buffers the effects of negative emotions on burnout. Specifically, anger- and sadness-related emotions predicted greater burnout among nurses with low trait emotional intelligence but not among nurses with high trait emotional intelligence. These results suggest that emotional intelligence training could be implemented to prevent the adverse effect of negative emotions felt at work on job burnout.

This study examined the factorial structure of the Polish version of the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA‐PL) and its relation with other variables, previously shown to be antecedents or outcomes of parental burnout. The PBA‐PL was administered to a total sample of 2,130 parents along with other instruments depending on the study. Factorial analyses of the PBA‐PL supported both the original four‐factor model of parental burnout (exhaustion related to parenting, feelings of being fed up with parenting, emotional distancing from one's children, and contrast with previous parental self) and a second‐order model with a global parental burnout underlying the four first‐order factors. Both subscale and global scores were reliable. Significant correlations were found between PBA‐PL and neuroticism, emotional intelligence, maladaptive perfectionism, perceived social support, depressive symptoms, marital satisfaction, and life satisfaction. PBA‐PL also predicted both parental neglect and parental violence beyond socio‐demographic factors, depression, and job burnout.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all societies worldwide. The heightened levels of stress that accompanied the crisis were also expected to affect parenting in many families. Since it is known that high levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to a condition that has severe consequences for health and well-being, we examined whether the prevalence of parental burnout in 26 countries (9,923 parents; 75% mothers; mean age 40) increased during COVID-19 compared to few years before the pandemic. In most (but not all) countries, analyses showed a significant increase in the prevalence of parental burnout during the pandemic. The results further revealed that next to governmental measures (e.g., number of days locked down, homeschooling) and factors at the individual and family level (e.g., gender, number of children), parents in less (vs. more) indulgent countries suffered more from parental burnout. The findings suggest that stricter norms regarding their parenting roles and duties in general and during the pandemic in particular might have increased their levels of parental burnout.