My last essay came out either before or hours after this report came out but it explores crisis. I agree with your question, “how the heck do you define a “difficult situation”? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it if you get a chance.
Honestly, I think it is a really sloppy way to categorize and define 'stress' and part of the problem that I am bringing up with this project.
If there is anything helpful with the generality of a "difficult situation" it is pointing out the subjectivity around how one individual internalizes external challenges.
"Difficult" is contextual.
"Difficult" is historical.
"Difficult" is neurobiological
"Difficult" is A LOT OF THINGS.
And that definition is only helpful for implementing effective solutions when we can see and understand what "difficult" actually means.
Yes! There is a section on the effects of the added stress of child health issues -- "Allergies, ADD/ADHD, behavior/conduct conditions, asthma, anxiety, learning disability, and developmental delay were the most commonly reported health conditions among children with special health care needs. When surveyed, more than twice as many parents and caregivers of children with special health care needs reported “fair or poor mental health” compared to parents and caregivers of children without special health care needs (14% vs. 6%, respectively)." -- This added stress load is why I'm excited to explore separating language around "caregiving" and "parenting" with Sehreen Noor Ali, Allison Applebaum, and Pooja Lakshmin later this month - https://maternalstressproject.substack.com/p/event-caregiving-vs-parenting-do
So... I looked into the data and I'm not actually sure how helpful it is. The cited data comes from the 2016-2019 National Survey of Children's Health and "mental health" is a self-reported metric amongst a VERY LONG survey (average completion time for people with children is 38 minutes!).
As noted in the data summary of the one mental health question that is self-reported: "This is a very conservative criteria as those who respond to be in “good” mental health tend to have similar outcomes and item responses more similar to those who respond, “fair or poor” than to those who respond “very good/excellent.” This is due to the positivity bias in self-report of mental health."
What this means to me -- it might be important to also look at the difference between families that reported *both* parents in 'excellent or very good' mental health. For that metric, 73% of parents without special health care needs reported themselves in that category. Only 56.3% of parents of children with special health care needs reported themselves in that category.
This doesn't break down by gender or race or income or levels of medical need or really anything that might add context so... take it with a grain of salt!
If I was a fancy data scientist, I might be able to pull the raw data and crunch it based on demographics but... alas, my statistician skills are limited.
Wow, this is fascinating! It almost begs the question…do they really want to know? I can do data analysis (not super fancy but I do have some skills) and am happy to help in that respect if time permits! Thanks so much for following up 😊
Thanks so much for such a thorough review of the Advisory Molly. I just read through it in full and agree that section 3 was very thin and doesn’t acknowledge that parents deserve to have good mental health because we’re people too, not just to avoid messing our kids up! But overall I’m beyond thrilled that parental stress is getting this level of attention from our highest public health official and see it as a great way to continue these conversations in our communities, armed with objective data, not just with what can sometimes feel like I’m just complaining and being belittled.
My last essay came out either before or hours after this report came out but it explores crisis. I agree with your question, “how the heck do you define a “difficult situation”? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it if you get a chance.
Honestly, I think it is a really sloppy way to categorize and define 'stress' and part of the problem that I am bringing up with this project.
If there is anything helpful with the generality of a "difficult situation" it is pointing out the subjectivity around how one individual internalizes external challenges.
"Difficult" is contextual.
"Difficult" is historical.
"Difficult" is neurobiological
"Difficult" is A LOT OF THINGS.
And that definition is only helpful for implementing effective solutions when we can see and understand what "difficult" actually means.
This was super helpful, thank you! Was there any mention of parenting a child with a disability?
Yes! There is a section on the effects of the added stress of child health issues -- "Allergies, ADD/ADHD, behavior/conduct conditions, asthma, anxiety, learning disability, and developmental delay were the most commonly reported health conditions among children with special health care needs. When surveyed, more than twice as many parents and caregivers of children with special health care needs reported “fair or poor mental health” compared to parents and caregivers of children without special health care needs (14% vs. 6%, respectively)." -- This added stress load is why I'm excited to explore separating language around "caregiving" and "parenting" with Sehreen Noor Ali, Allison Applebaum, and Pooja Lakshmin later this month - https://maternalstressproject.substack.com/p/event-caregiving-vs-parenting-do
Thank you! Wow, 14% seems low to me. But I’m glad they addressed it.
Seems low to me as well.
Now I'm curious what the survey was using as a metric...
looking into this!
Oh please let me know when you find out!
So... I looked into the data and I'm not actually sure how helpful it is. The cited data comes from the 2016-2019 National Survey of Children's Health and "mental health" is a self-reported metric amongst a VERY LONG survey (average completion time for people with children is 38 minutes!).
As noted in the data summary of the one mental health question that is self-reported: "This is a very conservative criteria as those who respond to be in “good” mental health tend to have similar outcomes and item responses more similar to those who respond, “fair or poor” than to those who respond “very good/excellent.” This is due to the positivity bias in self-report of mental health."
What this means to me -- it might be important to also look at the difference between families that reported *both* parents in 'excellent or very good' mental health. For that metric, 73% of parents without special health care needs reported themselves in that category. Only 56.3% of parents of children with special health care needs reported themselves in that category.
This doesn't break down by gender or race or income or levels of medical need or really anything that might add context so... take it with a grain of salt!
If I was a fancy data scientist, I might be able to pull the raw data and crunch it based on demographics but... alas, my statistician skills are limited.
Wow, this is fascinating! It almost begs the question…do they really want to know? I can do data analysis (not super fancy but I do have some skills) and am happy to help in that respect if time permits! Thanks so much for following up 😊
Thanks so much for such a thorough review of the Advisory Molly. I just read through it in full and agree that section 3 was very thin and doesn’t acknowledge that parents deserve to have good mental health because we’re people too, not just to avoid messing our kids up! But overall I’m beyond thrilled that parental stress is getting this level of attention from our highest public health official and see it as a great way to continue these conversations in our communities, armed with objective data, not just with what can sometimes feel like I’m just complaining and being belittled.
Yes, is it really awesome it is getting this level of attention. We are not complaining, we are just highlighting THE TRUTH.