Skip to content

Parent stress & child activities (June 2020)

Download Full Report Download Press Release

Focus of this report

This report is based upon the data from the first 1728 parents/carers who completed the survey between Friday 17th April and Wednesday 20th May.

In this report, we focus on the following outcomes:

  1. Parent/Carer Stress
  2. How children are spending their time
  3. Parents feelings about child play and entertainment
  4. Child worries
  5. The need for parental support

Key findings

  • Nearly ¾ of participating parents/carers felt that they were not sufficiently able to meet the needs of both work and their pre-school child.

Infographic - nearly 3 fourths of co-SPYCE parents felt they were not sufficiently able to meet the needs of their work and child

  • The top 3 stressors for participating parents/carers were (i) work, (ii) child’s screen time, (iii) their child’s wellbeing.

Infographic - the top 3 stressors for Co-SPYCE parents are work, child's screen time and child's wellbeing

  • Over 80% of children are reported by participating parents/carers to be getting at least 30 minutes of exercise a day but only 22% are reported to be getting the recommended 3 hours.
  • Almost half of the children (47%) are reported to be spending no time playing with another child in their household.

infographic - Almost half of the children (47%) are reported to be spending no time playing with another child in their household.

  • At least half (51%) of the 2-4 year olds are reported by participating parents/carers as not communicating at all via phone, video call or message with friends outside their home.

infographic - At least half (51%) of the 2-4 year olds are reported by participating parents/carers as not communicating at all via phone, video call or message with friends outside their home.

  • Not being able to see their friends and attend social and sporting activities is the most common worry reported by participating parents/carers for pre-school children.

infographic - Not being able to see their friends and attend social and sporting activities is the most common worry reported by participating parents/carers for pre-school children.

  • Participating parents/carers particularly want support around managing children’s emotions, educational demands, behaviours and coming out of social isolation.

infographic - Participating parents/carers particularly want support around managing children’s emotions, educational demands, behaviours and coming out of social isolation.