ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Social Pediatrics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1640094
This article is part of the Research TopicMental health and wellbeing of childrenView all 10 articles
When Exhaustion Meets Permissiveness: A Response Surface Analysis of Parental Burnout-Parenting Style Interactions on Childhood Social Anxiety
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chongqing Medical and Pharmaceutical College, Chongqing, China
- 2Shanhu Experimental Primary School, Chongqing, China
- 3Army Medical University Xinqiao Hospital Department of Neurology, Chongqing, China
- 4Army Medical University, Chongqing, China
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Objective: This study examined the interactive effecs of parental burnout and parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) on childhood social anxiety using Response Surface Analysis. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between November and December 2024 at primary schools in Chongqing, China. Participants (parents and their children) were required to complete online questionnaires, including the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA), the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ), and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC). Response Surface Analysis (RSA) and polynomial regression models examined the nonlinear interactions between parental burnout, parenting styles, and childhood social anxiety. Results: A total of 724 datasets were included in the study. These findings indicated that significant congruence effects emerged for permissive parenting and parental burnout, an inverted U-shaped appeared along line of incongruence with childhood social anxiety, curvature (a4=-0.70, p=0.009) and the slope (a3=-0.57, p=0.272). Moreover, the curvature (a2=-0.28, p=0.089) and slope (a1=0.81, p=0.068) were measured along the line of congruence, indicating that the line of congruence section curve is linearly rising. Conclusion: The study identifies a significant interactive effect of parental burnout and permissive parenting style on childhood social anxiety, highlighting the need for two-pronged interventions. Future research should investigate the longitudinal causal pathways between parental burnout-parenting style congruence and child social anxiety across diverse cultural contexts.
Keywords: Parenting style, Parental burnout, Child social anxiety, Response surface analysis, Permissiveness
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Yang, Liu and Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xuerong Liu, Army Medical University Xinqiao Hospital Department of Neurology, Chongqing, China
Zhengzhi Feng, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.