Overview
- Peer-reviewed research in PLOS ONE analyzed 440 Polish parents using validated measures and sex-stratified structural equation models.
- Across models, difficulty identifying and describing feelings consistently connected insecure attachment orientations with higher parental burnout.
- In women, anxious attachment related to burnout indirectly through alexithymia, while avoidance toward the mother showed a direct link.
- In men, avoidance toward the mother was directly tied to burnout, with anxiety relating indirectly via alexithymia; Newsweek reported men averaged higher alexithymia and burnout.
- The authors note the cross-sectional, pandemic-era data do not establish causality and recommend emotion-focused, attachment-informed, sex-sensitive support for parents.