Source: The Telegraph >> Read Full Article and Comment
Parents who suffer work stress risk passing on their worries to their children, causing them to burn out as well, a study indicates.
Researchers found that career disillusionment felt by mothers and fathers can be “contagious”, leading their offspring to lose interest in schoolwork.
Parents’ negative attitudes can cause youngsters to fear they are falling behind their classmates and become exhausted, experts claim.
The effect is most pronounced between fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters, the research by the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, concluded.
The problem may be rising amid the recession, the study’s authors warned.
Researchers questioned more than 500 teenagers about whether they had ever experienced burnout. Symptoms include tiredness, a sense of inadequacy as a student and cynicism about the value of schooling.
Their parents were asked similar questions about work-related stress and a pattern quickly emerged.
The parents worn out physically and emotionally were more likely to have children suffering similar problems at school, the European Journal of Developmental Psychology reports… Continue Reading
