Parents who complain of feeling burned out at work are more likely to have kids who are burned out at school.

The evidence that burnout runs in families comes from a study of 370 ninth graders from 11 schools in Finland as well as one or both of their parents. Researchers have developed measurement tools to assess the level of burnout in workers and students, with burnout defined as feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by work and school demands, feelings of cynicism about job and school work or feeling inadequate and powerless.

When the researchers assessed the level of burnout experienced by both parents and students, they found several factors — including the size of the daily workload as well as financial stress — were primarily responsible for the level of burnout adults and teens were feeling at work and school. However, they also showed that burnout runs in families. There was a particularly strong association between work burnout in mothers and school burnout in their teen daughters.

Given the current economic recession, burnout in families may become a larger problem. The study found that family finances predicted a higher level of shared burnout among parents and teens. The findings appeared in The European Journal of Developmental Psychology.

“It seems that burnout can spread in the family,” said Katariina Salmela-Aro, a University of Helsinki psychologist, in an e-mail. “Parents act as role models, particularly the same gender, and burnout in parents might lead to negative parenting and low involvement to their kids, and this can also lead to burnout.”