Parental Burnout as a Potential Trauma-Related Process: A Proposed Chronic Relational Trauma Model for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Parental burnout, a role-specific exhaustion syndrome, disproportionately affects parents of children with autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The Risk–Resource model, which dominates this field, explains this phenomenon as a chronic imbalance between demands and resources. While this transactional framework is empirically robust, it remains primarily quantitative and does not adequately consider the identity and relational aspects of long-term parenting of a neurodivergent child.

Drawing on attachment theory, ecological developmental theory, the family systems approach and research on complex trauma and toxic stress, this theoretical article identifies five gaps in current models. These include parental identity rupture, grieving for the imagined child and lack of integration with trauma symptomatology already documented in these parents. The article proposes a new model, the Chronic Parental Relational Trauma Model, which is structured in five nested levels and reinterprets parental burnout as a possible manifestation of prolonged exposure to relational stress with no possibility of withdrawal.

While this model lacks direct empirical validation, it generates five testable hypotheses and encourages a rethinking of clinical screening and interventions for these families from a trauma-centred perspective.