Mental health
is the top priority for parents when they are concerned about their
child’s
well-being.
A new
study
from the Pew Research Center shows that 4 in 10 U.S. parents are extremely or very worried about their children struggling with anxiety and depression, followed by being bullied (35%).
PARTIES AGREE TIME WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS IS MEANINGFUL: REPORT
Mental health concerns topped physical threats to children, such as alcohol/drugs, teenage pregnancy, and getting in trouble with the police. Overall, mothers are more likely to worry about their children than fathers by significant margins, per the study.
Parents are also worried about aspirations for their children when they reach adulthood. They are equally concerned with their children establishing financial independence and securing a job or career that they enjoy, with 88% of parents saying it is “extremely/very” important to them.
However, how children achieve that job differs by race and ethnicity. For example, 70% of Asian parents say their child graduating college is extremely important to them, compared to 57% of Hispanic parents, 51% of black parents, and 29% of white parents.
Parents are worried about their overall performance as well. Most parents, 64%, believe they are doing an excellent or very good job as a parent, with 62% also saying that being a parent has been at least somewhat harder than expected.
Upper-income parents and black and white parents are more likely to think they are doing a great job as a parent.
Thirty percent of mothers say being a parent is harder than they thought, compared to 20% of fathers. When asked about different parenting styles, including how lenient they are with their children or how overprotective they are, parents varied, with anywhere between 34% and 53% of them saying that “neither option best describes their parenting style.”
A relatively small portion of parents believes that their children becoming a parent is of high importance. Of that portion, black and Hispanic parents (42% and 38%) are more likely to say that it is the most important part of their child’s life, compared to white and Asian parents (25% and 24%).
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The survey was conducted between Sept. 20 and Oct. 2, 2022, of 3,757 parents with children younger than 18.
