IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i16p9791-d883633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Maternal Competence, Maternal Burnout and Personality Traits in Italian Mothers after the First COVID-19 Lockdown

Author

Listed:
  • Concetta Polizzi

    (Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Giulia Giordano

    (Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Sofia Burgio

    (Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Gioacchino Lavanco

    (Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Marianna Alesi

    (Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the maternal sense of competence and maternal burnout in Italian mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample was composed of 278 mothers of children/adolescents aged 4 to 17 years old. Participants were recruited after the end of the first spring total Italian lockdown (June–October 2020) through online advertisements on websites and social media. We hypothesized a model in which a specific personality trait, such as neuroticism, affected maternal competence by the mediating role of maternal burnout. Results showed that neuroticism was directly and negatively predictive of perception of maternal competence, and it was negatively associated with maternal burnout, specifically specific antecedents that were strictly related to parental burnout. ANOVA results highlighted that the maternal level of education affected maternal competence in terms of satisfaction. In contrast, the working regimen during the first lockdown for COVID-19 affected maternal competence in terms of efficacy. Maternal burnout was affected by atypical child development in terms of both common (job burnout, stress management abilities) and specific (parental burnout) antecedents. COVID-19 strongly increased the risk of maternal burnout, resulting in mothers having a poor perception of their own competency. This is particularly the case in the presence of a neurotic personality.

Suggested Citation

  • Concetta Polizzi & Giulia Giordano & Sofia Burgio & Gioacchino Lavanco & Marianna Alesi, 2022. "Maternal Competence, Maternal Burnout and Personality Traits in Italian Mothers after the First COVID-19 Lockdown," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9791-:d:883633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9791/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9791/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Del Boca, Daniela & Oggero, Noemi & Profeta, Paola & Rossi, Maria Cristina, 2020. "Women's Work, Housework and Childcare, before and during COVID-19," IZA Discussion Papers 13409, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Selçuk Özdin & Şükriye Bayrak Özdin, 2020. "Levels and predictors of anxiety, depression and health anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkish society: The importance of gender," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(5), pages 504-511, August.
    3. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2020. "Women’s Work, Housework and Childcare, before and during COVID-19," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 613, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mario J. Valladares-Garrido & Luis Eduardo Zapata-Castro & Cinthia Karina Picón-Reategui & Ana Paula Mesta-Pintado & Ronald Alberto Picón-Reategui & Mariana Huaman-Garcia & César Johan Pereira-Victori, 2022. "Association between Working Time and Burnout Syndrome in Peruvian Military during the Second Epidemic Wave of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-14, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2021. "Did COVID-19 Affect the Division of Labor within the Household? Evidence from Two Waves of the Pandemic in Italy," Working Papers 2021-043, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    2. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    3. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    4. Cassandra E DiRienzo & Jayoti Das, 2021. "Formal Female Entrepreneurship and the Shadow Economy," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 13(5), pages 63-72.
    5. Boca Daniela del & Rossi Maria Cristina & Oggero Noemi & Profeta Paola, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on the gender division of housework and childcare: Evidence from two waves of the pandemic in Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Ali, Umair & Herbst, Chris M. & Makridis, Christos A., 2021. "Minimum Quality Regulations and the Demand for Child Care Labor," IZA Discussion Papers 14684, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Camila Salazar-Fernández & Daniela Palet & Paola A. Haeger & Francisca Román Mella, 2021. "COVID-19 Perceived Impact and Psychological Variables as Predictors of Unhealthy Food and Alcohol Consumption Trajectories: The Role of Gender and Living with Children as Moderators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Jordy Meekes & Wolter H J Hassink & Guyonne Kalb, 2023. "Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 393-417.
    9. Marta Pasqualini & Marta Dominguez Folgueras & Emanuele Ferragina & Olivier Godechot & Ettore Recchi & Mirna Safi, 2022. "Who took care of what? The gender division of unpaid work during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in France," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(34), pages 1007-1036.
    10. Elisa Brini & Stefani Scherer & Agnese Vitali & Mariya Lenko, 2021. "Retraditionalisation? Work patterns of families with children during the pandemic in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(31), pages 957-972.
    11. Shinsuke Asakawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Impact of Temporary School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Academic Achievement of Elementary School Students," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 21-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    12. Giulia Bettin & Isabella Giorgetti & Stefano Staffolani, 2024. "The impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the gender gap in the Italian labour market," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    13. Ainaa, Carmen & Brunetti, Irene & Mussida, Chiara & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Who lost the most? Distributive effects of COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 829, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Kugler, Maurice & Viollaz, Mariana & Duque, Daniel & Gaddis, Isis & Newhouse, David & Palacios-Lopez, Amparo & Weber, Michael, 2023. "How did the COVID-19 crisis affect different types of workers in the developing world?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    15. Matthew A. Ng & Anthony Naranjo & Ann E. Schlotzhauer & Mindy K. Shoss & Nika Kartvelishvili & Matthew Bartek & Kenneth Ingraham & Alexis Rodriguez & Sara Kira Schneider & Lauren Silverlieb-Seltzer & , 2021. "Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerated the Future of Work or Changed Its Course? Implications for Research and Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-28, September.
    16. Nataliya Nerobkova & Soo Young Kim & Eun-Cheol Park & Jaeyong Shin, 2022. "Workplace Mistreatment and Health Conditions Prior and during the COVID-19 in South Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-11, October.
    17. Alon, Titan & Doepke, Matthias & Olmstead-Rumsey, Jane & Tertilt, Michèle, 2020. "This Time It's Different: The Role of Women's Employment in a Pandemic Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 13562, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Ewa Sygit-Kowalkowska & Andrzej Piotrowski & Ole Boe & Samir Rawat & Jelena Minic & Alexandra Predoiu & Radu Predoiu & Žermēna Vazne & Andra Fernate & Romualdas Malinauskas & Nguyen Phuc Nguyen & John, 2022. "Evaluation of Work Mode and Its Importance for Home–Work and Work–Home Relationships: The Role of Resilience, Coping with Stress, and Passion for Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-19, November.
    19. Stephan Payr & Andrea Schuller & Theresia Dangl & Philipp Scheider & Thomas Sator & Britta Chocholka & Manuela Jaindl & Elisabeth Schwendenwein & Thomas M. Tiefenboeck, 2021. "Maintaining Medical Resources to Treat Paediatric Injuries during COVID-19 Lockdown Is Essential—An Epidemiological Analysis of a Level 1 Trauma Centre in Central Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, May.
    20. Alicia Regodon & Maxime Armand & Carmen Lastres & Jose De Pedro & Alfonso García-Santos, 2021. "Data-Driven Methodology for Coliving Spaces and Space Profiling Based on Post-Occupancy Evaluation through Digital Trail of Users," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-24, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9791-:d:883633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.