A Lurie Children’s Hospital survey of 1,100 parents across Chicago found that half saw their stress levels rise since the start of the pandemic.
Marie Heffernan, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Lurie and Northwestern Medical School, said the survey found more mothers than fathers reported an increase in stress.
“Sixty-five percent of parents said they were worried about a new variant that could make the pandemic worse, both in Chicago, specifically, and in the U.S.,” Heffernan said. “Sixty-three percent said they were very concerned that their child could catch the virus.”
Heffernan said the survey shows that COVID has done harm to adults, as well as children.
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The survey, Heffernan added, found that parents whose children were dealing with behavioral or emotional challenges were more likely to experience higher stress.
“These are things like anxiety, trouble focusing, or depression,” Heffernan said. “Parents who had at least one child showing those kinds of symptoms were significantly more likely to report that their own stress level had also increased.
That correlation has been shown in other research, but she said it’s not certain which came first.
“It’s reasonable to say that there’s probably a dynamic interplay going on there, where children’s mental health is influencing parents’ mental health, and vice versa,” Heffernan said.
Over half of the parents surveyed said they were worried about returning to remote learning.
It’s not clear if stress was higher among parents with kids under 5 who, until this week, could not get COVID vaccines.
Lurie hopes to use the Voices of Child Health survey to drive conversations with pediatricians and parents.
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