Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Development and preliminary validation of the Maternal Burnout Scale (MBS) in a French sample of mothers: bifactorial structure, reliability, and validity

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Archives of Women's Mental Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study and evaluation of burnout in the context of parenthood have been of growing interest over the last years. The aim of this study is to develop and validate the Maternal Burnout Scale (MBS) to contribute knowledge of the assessment of parental burnout. Items were developed based on elements from an extensive literature review that defined the significant dimensions interesting to the parental context. These items were also examined by expert clinicians. The revised version was submitted for an exploratory testing on 673 French mothers (mean age 31.69 ± 5.52 years) having at least one child living at home (0–25 years); then, it was submitted for a confirmatory analysis of 1277 (mean age 32.67 ± 5.49 years) mothers having the same parental profile (child aged 0.1–24 years). The exploratory analysis suggests a three-factor structure that accounted for 51% of the variance: negative emotional-behavioral manifestations (25%), physical and emotional exhaustion (15%), and a sense of parental achievement (13%). The confirmatory analysis retained a bifactorial structure recognizing maternal burnout as a common factor as well as the three other factors. According to the established threshold scores, 6.6% (n = 84) of the mothers could experience clinical maternal burnout. Indeed, Maternal Burnout Scale (MBS) has shown good psychometric properties with a high internal consistency both for the general score and for subscales. Furthermore, the validity of the scale was also confirmed. The MBS appears to be an applicable and reliable tool to determine the presence and severity of burnout symptoms among mothers. As a conclusion, the prevalence of maternal burnout indicates the importance of studying this syndrome in order to establish measures of prevention and actions to be taken.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abidin R (1990) Parenting stress index short form. Test manual. Pediactric Psychology Press, Chalottesville

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandalos DL, Finney, SJ (2010) Factor analysis: exploratory and confirmatory. In Hancock GR, Mueller RO, Stapleton LM. The reviewer’s guide to quantitative methods in the social sciences. Routledge, New York, pp 93–114

  • Beheshtipour N, Nasirpour P, Yektatalab S, Karimi M, Zare N (2016) The effect of educational-spiritual intervention on the burnout of the parents of school age children with cancer: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Int J Commun Based Nurse Midwifery 4(1):90–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellinghausen L, Collange J, Botella M, Emery J-L, Albert É (2009) Validation factorielle de l’échelle française de stress perçu en milieu professionnel. Santé Publique 21(4):365–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brigas N, Lafraniere P, Abidin R (1996) Indice de stress parental: manuel Francophone en complément à l’édition américaine. Multi-health Systems Inc, Publications, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown T (2006) Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. Guildford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne M, Cudeck R (1993) Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In: Testing structural equation modeling. Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp 136–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne B (1998) Structural equation modeling with LISREL, PRELIS, and SIMPLIS: basic concepts, applications, and programming. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R (1983) A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav 24:385–396

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Currie J (2004) Motherhood, stress and the exercise experience: freedom or constraint? Leis Stud 23(3):225–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/0261436042000251987

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demerouti E, Bakker AB, Nachreiner F, Schaufeli WB (2001) The job demands-resources model of burnout. J Appl Psychol 86(3):499

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Demerouti E, Bakker AB, Vardakou I, Kantas A (2003) The convergent validity of two burnout instruments. Eur J Psychol Assess 19(1):12–23. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.19.1.12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Densten IL (2001) Re-thinking burnout. J Organ Behav 22(8):833–847. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duygun T, Sezgin N (2003) The effects of stress symptoms, coping styles and perceived social support on burnout level of mentally handicapped and healthy children’s mothers. Türk Psukoloji Dergisi 18(52):37–52

  • Edelwich J, Brodsky A (1980) Burn-out: Stages of disillusionment in the helping professions (Vol. 1). Human Sciences Press, New York

  • Fabrigar LR, Wegener DT, MacCallum RC, Strahan EJ (1999) Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychol Methods 4(3):272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freudenberger HJ (1974) Staff burn-out. J Soc Issues 30(1):159–165. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1974.tb00706.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gil-Monte PR (2011) CESQT Cuestionario para la evaluación del síndrome de quemarse por el trabajo: manual. TEA, Madrid

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman N (1989) Burnout and coping strategies in mothers of young children. Diss Abstr Int 50(11):5

    Google Scholar 

  • Hair JF, Black WC, Babin BJ, Anderson RE (2014) Multivariate data analysis. Pearson Education Limited, Harlow

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu L, Bentler P (1998) Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification. Psychol Methods 3(4):424–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hubert S, Aujoulat I (2018) Parental burnout: when exhausted mothers open up. Front Psychol 9:1021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01021

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • IBM Corp. SPSS, I (2012) Released 2012. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows

  • INSEE (2016) The life of women and men in Europe - childcare and housework. Retrieved from: insee.fr/fr/outil-interactif/3142332/bloc-3d.html?lang=fr

  • Jaramillo S, Moreno S, Rodríguez V (2016) Emotional burden in parents of children with trisomy 21. Descriptive study in a Colombian population. Universitas Psychologica 15(1):29–38. https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.upsy15-1.ebpc

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan R, Saccuzzo D (1997) Psychological testing: principles, applications, and issues. Brooks, Pacific Grove

    Google Scholar 

  • Karadavut KI, Uneri SO (2011) Burnout, depression and anxiety levels in mothers of infants with brachial plexus injury and the effects of recovery on mothers’ mental health. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 157(1):43–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2011.03.001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • King DB, O’Rourke N, DeLongis A (2014) Social media recruitment and online data collection: a beginner’s guide and best practices for accessing low-prevalence and hard-to-reach populations. Can Psychol/Psychologie Canadienne 55(4):240–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038087

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee RT, Ashforth BE (1990) On the meaning of Maslach’s three dimensions of burnout. J Appl Psychol 75(6):743

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lee CT, Zhang G, Edwards MC (2012) Ordinary least squares estimation of parameters in exploratory factor analysis with ordinal data. Multivar Behav Res 47(2):314–339. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2012.658340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy-Shiff R (1999) Fathers’ cognitive appraisals, coping strategies, and support resources as correlates of adjustment to parenthood. J Fam Psychol 13(4):554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lheureux F, Truchot D, Borteyrou X, Rascle N (2017) The Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS): factor structure, wording effect and psychometric qualities of known problematic items. Le travail humain 80(2):161–186. https://doi.org/10.3917/th.802.0161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman DZ (2008) Evaluation of the stability and validity of participant samples recruited over the Internet. CyberPsychol Behav 11(6):743–745. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.0254

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lindahl Norberg A (2007) Burnout in mothers and fathers of children surviving brain tumour. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 14(2):130–137

  • Lindström C, Aman J, Norberg AL (2011) Parental burnout in relation to sociodemographic, psychosocial and personality factors as well as disease duration and glycaemic control in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Acta Paediatr 100(7):1011–1017. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02198.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzo-Seva U (2013) How to report the percentage of explained common variance in exploratory factor analysis. Department of Psychology, Tarragona

    Google Scholar 

  • Lourel M, Gueguen N, Mouda F (2007) L’évaluation du burnout de Pines: adaptation et validation en version française de l’instrument Burnout Measure Short version (BMS-10). Prat Psychol 13(3):353–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prps.2007.06.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malach-Pines A (2005) The burnout measure short version (BMS). Int J Stress Manag 12(1):78–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.12.1.78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manor-Binyamini I, Abu-Ajaj O (2017) Ways of coping and mental burnout of Bedouin mothers compared to Bedouin fathers of children with ASD. Neuropsychiatry 7(1)

  • Mardia K (1975) Applications of some measures of multivariates kewness and kurtosis in testing normality and robustestness studies. J Indian Soc Probability and Statistics 36:115–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Maslach C, Jackson SE (1981) The measurement of experienced burnout. J Organ Behav 2(2):99–113. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030020205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mikolajczak M, Gross JJ, Roskam I (2019) Parental burnout: what is it and why does it matter? Clin Psychol Sci. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702619858430

  • Mikolajczak M, Raes M-E, Avalosse H, Roskam I (2017) Exhausted parents: sociodemographic, child-related, parent-related, parenting and family-functioning correlates of parental burnout. J Child Fam Stud 1(13):1024–1062. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0892-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pelsma D, Roland B, Tollefson N, Wigington H (1989) Parent burnout: validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory with a sample of mothers. Meas Eval Couns Dev 22:81–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pronovost G (2007) Le temps dans tous ses états: temps de travail, temps de loisir et temps pour la famille à l’aube du XXIe siècle. Enjeux publics IRPP, 8. Retrieved from: http://bel.uqtr.ca/id/eprint/653

  • Razavi D, Delvaux N, Farvacques C, Robaye E (1989) Validation de la version française du HADS dans une population de patients cancéreux hospitalisés. Revue de Psychologie Appliquée 39:295–307

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez A, Reise S, Haviland M (2016) Applying bifactor statistical indices in the evaluation of psychological measures. J Pers Assess 98(3):223–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2015.1089249

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roskam I, Raes M-E, Mikolajczak M (2017) Exhausted parents: development and preliminary validation of the parental burnout inventory. Front Psychol 8:163. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00163

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Roskam I, Brianda ME, Mikolajczak M (2018) A step forward in the conceptualization and measurement of parental burnout: the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA). Front Psychol 9:758. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00758

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez-Rodríguez R, Perier S, Callahan S, Séjourné N (2019) Revue descriptive de la littérature relative au burnout parental. Psychol Can 60(2):77-89.https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000168

  • Schaufeli, W. B., & Buunk, B. P. (2003). Burnout: an overview of 25 years of research and theorizing. The handbook of work and health psychology, 2, 282–424

  • Schumacker R, Lomax R (2004) A beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Séjourné N, Sánchez-Rodríguez R, Leboullenger A, Callahan S (2018) Maternal burnout: an exploratory study. J Reprod Infant Psychol 36(3):276-288. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2018.1437896

  • Shirom A, Melamed S (2006) A comparison of the construct validity of two burnout measures in two groups of professionals. Int J Stress Manag 13(2):176–200. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.13.2.176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stein G, Van den Akker O (1992) The retrospective diagnosis of postnatal depression by questionnaire. J Psychosom Res 36:67–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(92)90115-I

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Timmerman ME, Lorenzo-Seva U (2011) Dimensionality assessment of ordered polytomous items with parallel analysis. Psychol Methods 16(2):209. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023353

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Truchot (2004) L’épuisement professionnel: concepts, modèles, interventions. Dunod, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Bakel HJA, Van Engen ML, Peters P (2018) Validity of the parental burnout inventory among dutch employees. Front Psychol 9:697. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00697

  • Van Dam A (2016) Subgroup analysis in burnout: relations between fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Psychopathology 7:90. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (1992) The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders: clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Worthington RL, Whittaker TA (2006) Scale development research: a content analysis and recommendations for best practices. Couns Psychol 34(6):806–838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zawieja P, Guarnieri F (2013) Épuisement professionnel: Approches innovantes et pluridisciplinaires. Armand Colin

  • Zigmond A, Snaith R (1983) The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatrica Scand 67:361–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1983.tb09716.x

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zumbo B, Gadermann A, Zeisser C (2007) Ordinal versions of coefficients alpha and theta for Likert Rating Scales. J Mod Appl Stat Methods 6(1):4. https://doi.org/10.22237/jmasm/1177992180

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Studies and Research in Psychopathology and Health Psychology, University of Toulouse, UT2J,, Toulouse, France

    Raquel Sánchez-Rodríguez, Stacey Callahan & Natalène Séjourné

Authors
  1. Raquel Sánchez-Rodríguez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stacey Callahan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Natalène Séjourné
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raquel Sánchez-Rodríguez.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee of Toulouse (CERNI) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 5 Preliminary validation of the Maternal Burnout Scale (MBS)
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sánchez-Rodríguez, R., Callahan, S. & Séjourné, N. Development and preliminary validation of the Maternal Burnout Scale (MBS) in a French sample of mothers: bifactorial structure, reliability, and validity. Arch Womens Ment Health 23, 573–583 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-019-00993-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-019-00993-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation