Parents are more likely than non-parents to experience severe and prolonged stress compared with non-parents, a new report by the United States surgeon general said.
Experts say the report aligns with mental health indicators in Canada, and there are key changes that can help.
The report by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said that 33 per cent of parents reported high levels of stress in the past month compared with 20 per cent of other adults.
According to the report, there are 63 million parents in the United States who have children under the age of 18, in addition to millions of other caregivers.
“This population experiences a range of unique stressors that come with raising children; including common demands of parenting, financial strain and economic instability, time demands, concerns about children’s health and safety, parental isolation and loneliness, difficulty managing technology and social media, and cultural pressures,” the report said.
“I am calling for a fundamental shift in how we value and prioritize the mental health and well-being of parents. I am also outlining policies, programs, and individual actions we can all take to support parents and caregivers,” Murthy said in a statement.
And it’s not just American parents feeling the strain.
What does the report actually propose?
The advisory said Americans need to shift norms to better foster a culture that values mental health support for caregivers and parents.
Among those measures, Murthy recommended “policy changes and expanded community programs that will help ensure parents and caregivers can get paid time off to be with a sick child, secure affordable child care, access reliable mental health care, and benefit from places and initiatives that support social connection and community.”
Michael Cooper, vice-president of Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC), said the report “does line up with some of the indicators we’re seeing in terms of Canadians’ rates of burnout.”
A 2023 MHRC report said anxiety levels were especially high for younger Canadian parents, particularly those younger than 29. The report added that younger people in general, whether or not they were parents, had higher levels of anxiety.
However, parents below the age of 29 who have children above the age of 10 tended to experience higher levels of depression compared with parents between the ages of 30 and 44.
“We do see significantly higher rates of severe depression among especially among women who are young themselves but also have older children, which means they had a child, most likely in their teenage years. They see higher levels of depression,” Cooper said.
LGBTQ2 and newcomer parents have higher levels of burnout than the general population, Cooper noted. This could be attributed to social stigma around mental health in some communities or social isolation.
The report noted that a lack of access to care or support was a major factor for many young mothers, especially during the pandemic.
“Many mothers who were pregnant or had a child early in the pandemic were particularly challenged with a lack of proper health, mental health, and family support,” the report said.
Cooper said that since 2022, the widespread indicators of the pandemic have given way to more specific concerns around the cost-of-living crisis.
“What we actually saw was that when inflation really kicked into high gear in 2023, the rates (of burnout among parents) have started going back up,” he said.
“It’s not a widespread group. It’s the people who can’t afford to pay bills.”
The report has the testimony of a 29-year-old man with young children, who said, “It’s better because now you can go out, you can see people and have some fun. But financially, it is not. I am still looking for a job. A lot of the jobs that left during COVID, they didn’t come back… companies are not hiring. Now I am worried about that.”
Cooper said that young parents tend to have higher degrees of food insecurity. The MHRC tracks food insecurity on three levels – those with no food insecurity, low food insecurity and high food insecurity.
While high food insecurity means someone has to make regular trips to the food bank to feed their family, low food insecurity also has its impact.
“Low food insecurity is, I’m giving my kids Kraft Dinner every night. They’re not getting meat. They’re not getting vegetables,” he said.
“These children are growing and if they don’t get nutrients, they’re not going to grow effectively in both physical and neurological development. That, to me, is the biggest stressor.”
Cooper said one of the biggest things governments can do to support young parents is to bring down the cost of groceries and work towards improving general food security.