Nearly a third of parents, 31%, say their child struggled in school during the 2020-21 school year, according to a Child Mind Institute survey of 3,200 parents of children and adults ages 24 and younger. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, just 11% of parents said their child struggled in school.
In the survey, 40% of parents also reported their child’s mood worsened during the global health crisis due to issues such as anxiety and higher stress, and 31% said their child went through a traumatic event. Just 45% said a pediatrician, family doctor or mental health professional asked if their child experienced stressful or traumatic events.
The findings are in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released in March, in which a third of high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the pandemic. In that research, 44% of students said they felt persistently sad or hopeless in the previous year, and those from marginalized communities reported even greater mental health strain.
According to a national survey from Springtide Research Institute released in May, however, a third of students said they were reluctant to seek mental health care because they didn’t think their issues “were big enough to bother someone with” or they felt they would be judged.
The Child Mind Institute survey, sponsored by Blue Shield of California, was conducted by Ipsos from July 21 through Aug. 31.
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