Parental burnout: Moving the focus from children to parents

Parental burnout (PB)—a condition characterized by intense exhaustion related to parenting, emotional distancing from one's children, and a loss of parental fulfillment—has received increasing attention in recent years, even more since the worldwide COVID-19 crisis and the confinement of parents with their children. This crisis put the spotlight on parents' suffering, and the need to better understand parental burnout and how to best assess and treat it emerged as a priority. This brief article introduces the Thematic Issue of New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development focused on the measurement of parental burnout across various regions of the world. It briefly reviews the concept of parental burnout, its phenomenological experience, its etiology and consequences, and its measurement.