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Parenting styles and academic burnout in medical students: a moderated mediation model of resilience and stress

C. Teng,Liyang Shi,Chenchen Xu,Jianjun Zhu

Published 2025 in Frontiers in Medicine

ABSTRACT

Introduction Amidst the confluence of post-COVID educational shifts, China’s New Healthcare Reform, and family structural changes driven by the two-child policy, academic burnout (ABO) severely impacts medical students’ health and performance. While parenting styles and resilience are recognized predictors, the dynamic interactions among parenting styles, resilience, and stress remain underexplored. This study, grounded in Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, investigates how parenting styles influence ABO through resilience, with stress as a moderator. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 1,403 medical students from Eastern China was conducted in August 2025. Participants completed scales assessing parenting styles (s-EMBU), resilience (CD-RISC), stress (CPSS), and ABO (ABS). Data were analyzed using correlation, mediation (PROCESS Model 4), and moderated mediation analyses (PROCESS Model 14). Results Contextual predictors of higher ABO included being a senior student, residing in a rural area, majoring in preventive medicine, and sleeping ≤7 h (all p < 0.05). Direct effects revealed that rejection (β = 6.331, p < 0.001) and overprotection parenting styles exacerbated ABO, whereas emotional warmth reduced ABO (β = −5.706, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis indicated that resilience mediated 44.2% (rejection), 74.8% (emotional warmth), and 41.4% (overprotection) of the total effects of parenting styles on ABO, with all 95% confidence intervals (CIs) excluding zero. Additionally, moderation analysis demonstrated that stress significantly undermined the protective function of resilience: at high stress levels (+1 SD), resilience’s protective influence on ABO was notably weaker (β = −0.239, 95% CI [−0.281, −0.198]), whereas under low stress conditions (−1 SD), resilience exerted a more robust reducing effect on ABO (β = −0.301, 95% CI [−0.343, −0.258]). Conclusion Parenting styles influence ABO through resilience, a pathway dynamically moderated by stress. Precision interventions are proposed: resilience training for students with negative parenting histories and family resource repair for those from positive backgrounds under high stress. This framework synergizes resource optimization with resilience reinforcement to combat ABO.

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