Parents’ Mental Health Is Suffering, Surgeon General Warns

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaks during the United States Conference of Mayors 91st Winter Meeting in Washington on Jan. 18, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Parents’ mental health and well-being is suffering more than that of other adults under the weight of economic and societal pressures, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory published on Aug. 27.

The advisory notes that age-old worries parents have always coped with have been compounded in recent decades with the introduction of new technology and social media, a youth mental health crisis, and an “epidemic of loneliness” disproportionately affecting young people and parents.

As a result, 33 percent of parents reported high levels of stress in 2023 compared with 20 percent of other adults.

“As a father of two kids, I feel these pressures too,” Murthy said in a statement. “With this Advisory, 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.”

Citing a review of recent research studies, Murthy’s advisory reveals that 65 percent of parents and guardians and 77 percent of single parents reported experiencing loneliness compared with 55 percent of nonparents.

Meanwhile, 70 percent of parents said they believe parenting is more difficult today than it was 20 years ago thanks to children’s use of social media and technology. And nearly three in four parents said they were either extremely or somewhat worried that their child would struggle with anxiety or depression.

Money Worries

Another major contributor to parents’ elevated stress levels was their financial health. Some 66 percent of parents reported feeling consumed by financial concerns in 2023 compared with 39 percent of other adults. Additionally, 24 percent of parents said there were times in the past year when they could not afford to pay for basic needs, and 20 percent reported struggling to pay for health care and child care.

There are roughly 63 million parents living with children under the age of 18 in the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. That figure does not include the millions of nonparent caregivers who bear the primary responsibility of caring for children.

With parents and guardians consistently reporting high levels of stress compared with other adults, the surgeon general said that a shift in cultural attitudes, policies, and programs is necessary. His recommendations include new federal and employer-offered parent and caregiver support programs, the establishment of a national paid family and medical leave program, and enhanced public and private insurance coverage of mental health care, among other ideas.

“It’s time to value and respect time spent parenting on par with time spent working at a paying job, recognizing the critical importance to society of raising children,” Murthy’s advisory states.

The report comes as the presidential campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are calling for an expansion of the child tax credit.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, has proposed raising the tax credit to up to $3,600 per child, or up to $6,000 for children in their first year of life.

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, has floated the idea of a $5,000 child tax credit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.