فیروزه جعفری مالیدره

SUBJECT & OBJECTIVES:  Parenting as a continuous, non-stop, and challenging responsibility always results in ponderable parental consequences, especially for mothers. This study aimed to examine the mediating role of parental self-control in the relationship between religious orientation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and parental burnout among Iranian mothers, analyzing both direct and indirect associations. METHOD & FINDING:  This study employed an analytical descriptive-correlational method. The participants included 272 Iranian mothers with Mage = 39.83, SDage = 6.65 who voluntarily participated in the online study and completed the Self-Control Scale (SCS), the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS), and the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA).  For testing the mediating role of self-control in the relationship between religious orientation and parental burnout, the mediation analysis method (Model 4) using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2017) was applied in SPSS version 27. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between intrinsic religious orientation and self-control (p < 0.01), a negative and significant correlation between parental burnout and intrinsic religious orientation (p < 0.05), and a negative and significant correlation between self-control and parental burnout (p < 0.01). The results also showed that the indirect effect of intrinsic religious orientation through self-control on parental burnout was significant, and it plays a mediating role in this relationship (CI 0.95 [-0.20, -0.08]). CONCLUSION:  Intrinsic religious orientation mitigates the risk of parental burnout by fostering greater self-control, which in turn helps mothers manage parenting stressors more effectively.