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Burnout in Mothers and Fathers of Children Surviving Brain Tumour

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Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the occurrence of burnout among parents of brain tumour survivors. Burnout was assessed in 24 mothers and 20 fathers of childhood brain tumour survivors, using the Shirom–Melamed Burnout Questionnaire. Parents of children with no history of chronic or serious diseases served as a reference group. Mothers’ burnout scores were significantly higher compared with reference mothers. For fathers, no relation between burnout and being a parent of a brain tumour survivor was established, despite a nonsignificant tendency in the same direction as for the mothers. In conclusion, the parenting burden after a child’s brain tumour may include chronic strain, and this may be particularly taxing for mothers. The findings encourage further studies of psychological exhaustion among parents of children with special needs.

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Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the time and energy contributed by the participating parents. Thanks also to Anncarin Pal, RN, who assisted in the process of inviting parents to participate in the study group. The study was supported by the Children’s Cancer Foundation of Sweden (RKT05/006).

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Correspondence to Annika Lindahl Norberg.

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Lindahl Norberg, A. Burnout in Mothers and Fathers of Children Surviving Brain Tumour. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 14, 130–137 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-007-9063-x

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