diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala
index 0da2baf24fbcb..bbcff4949ae87 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/json/JacksonParser.scala
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ class JacksonParser(
       new NoopFilters
     }
     (parser: JsonParser) => parseJsonToken[Iterable[InternalRow]](parser, st) {
-      case START_OBJECT => convertObject(parser, st, fieldConverters, jsonFilters)
+      case START_OBJECT => convertObject(parser, st, fieldConverters, jsonFilters, isRoot = true)
         // SPARK-3308: support reading top level JSON arrays and take every element
         // in such an array as a row
         //
@@ -383,7 +383,8 @@ class JacksonParser(
       parser: JsonParser,
       schema: StructType,
       fieldConverters: Array[ValueConverter],
-      structFilters: StructFilters = new NoopFilters()): Option[InternalRow] = {
+      structFilters: StructFilters = new NoopFilters(),
+      isRoot: Boolean = false): Option[InternalRow] = {
     val row = new GenericInternalRow(schema.length)
     var badRecordException: Option[Throwable] = None
     var skipRow = false
@@ -397,7 +398,7 @@ class JacksonParser(
             skipRow = structFilters.skipRow(row, index)
           } catch {
             case e: SparkUpgradeException => throw e
-            case NonFatal(e) =>
+            case NonFatal(e) if isRoot =>
               badRecordException = badRecordException.orElse(Some(e))
               parser.skipChildren()
           }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/JsonFunctionsSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/JsonFunctionsSuite.scala
index 03b48451c7495..5a1a3550d855b 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/JsonFunctionsSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/JsonFunctionsSuite.scala
@@ -733,4 +733,18 @@ class JsonFunctionsSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSparkSession {
          | """.stripMargin)
     checkAnswer(toDF("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX"), toDF("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss[.SSS][XXX]"))
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-33134: return partial results only for root JSON objects") {
+    val st = new StructType()
+      .add("c1", LongType)
+      .add("c2", ArrayType(new StructType().add("c3", LongType).add("c4", StringType)))
+    val df1 = Seq("""{"c2": [19], "c1": 123456}""").toDF("c0")
+    checkAnswer(df1.select(from_json($"c0", st)), Row(Row(123456, null)))
+    val df2 = Seq("""{"data": {"c2": [19], "c1": 123456}}""").toDF("c0")
+    checkAnswer(df2.select(from_json($"c0", new StructType().add("data", st))), Row(Row(null)))
+    val df3 = Seq("""[{"c2": [19], "c1": 123456}]""").toDF("c0")
+    checkAnswer(df3.select(from_json($"c0", ArrayType(st))), Row(null))
+    val df4 = Seq("""{"c2": [19]}""").toDF("c0")
+    checkAnswer(df4.select(from_json($"c0", MapType(StringType, st))), Row(null))
+  }
 }