“Caravans of Care”: Religiosity, Meaning in Life, and Family Functioning in Parental Burnout

Religiosity has been proposed as a meta-resource that may help parents endure chronic caregiving demands by anchoring parenting in meaning, values, and a sense of purpose—an idea compatible with Frankl’s view that suffering becomes more bearable when it is intelligible and oriented toward a “why.” In a cross-sectional sample of Polish parents (N = 339), we examined whether religiosity related to parental burnout through existential resources (presence and searching for meaning in life) and family-level resources (family functioning) while accounting for basic sociodemographic factors. The zero-order religiosity–burnout association was small and not statistically significant. Yet an indirect-only pattern emerged: higher religiosity was linked to lower parental burnout primarily through higher presence of meaning in life and better family functioning, including a small but reliable serial connection between these two resources. By contrast, global perceived support and generic searching for meaning did not add explanatory value once core resources were considered. In meaning-centred terms, religious faith may operate less as a direct “shield” against burnout and more as a pathway to sustaining everyday family practices and a stable sense of meaning that helps parents carry long-term demands. In other words, religiosity appears linked to lower burnout mainly indirectly via meaning and everyday family functioning, rather than through a sizable direct association.