Higher momentary parental burnout predicts lower subsequent emotional expression in parents during the festive season

This study adopted a within-person lens to unpack parental burnout and genuine emotional expression, focusing on their interplay and dynamic patterns – inertia, variability, and person-specific mean – during the Christmas season, an emotionally charged period that offers a valuable time window to study affective dynamics in parenting. Using the experience sampling method, we conducted a 35-day real-time study with 293 U.K. parents (14,451 observations), supplemented by baseline and follow-up assessments. Dynamic structural equation modeling was used to test reciprocal within-person relations between both constructs over time, to assess individual differences in dynamic patterns, and to explore whether these patterns mediated changes in burnout and expression from baseline to follow-up. Results revealed a negative, unidirectional within-person association from parental burnout to genuine expression. Individual differences were found in inertia, variability, and person-specific mean levels for both constructs. Notably, these person-specific mean levels mediated the links between baseline and follow-up levels of parental burnout and genuine expression. These findings offer insights into how short-term dynamics in parental burnout and genuine expression shape longer-term affective (mal)adjustment. They suggest that future intervention programs could benefit from being personalized and delivered in real time, targeting emotion regulation and burnout recovery in parents, particularly during emotionally intense periods such as the holiday season.