A new survey shows households with children under age 18 are experiencing economic strain, with parents suffering from depression, burnout and hopelessness.
Capita launched the new national survey, Quarterly Insights from American Families, in partnership with YouGov. The survey will be conducted quarterly.
“This is the baseline,” said Elliot Haspel, a senior fellow with Capita. “We really want to be able to ask questions that serve as an early warning system for family well-being.”
Haspel said what stood out to him from the survey is “how much parents are facing precarity right now… I think that it tells us that families are really struggling and they really need support.”
The questions
YouGov, on behalf of Capita, surveyed 1,000 parents with children under age 18 between Feb. 2 and Feb. 16, 2026. North Carolina is one of four states that were oversampled in the survey, meaning the results are especially representative of those facing parents in those states. (The others are Colorado, Michigan and New Jersey.)
The survey consists of 69 questions (available here) designed to track families across three dimensions: stability, predictability, and quality of life. Capita defines the question underlying each dimension:
- Stability: Can families meet basic needs without falling into crisis?
- Predictability: Can they plan their lives without constant disruption?
- Quality of life: Do they have the time, health, and connection to flourish, not just survive?
Haspel explained that this survey is meant to fill the gap between surveys such as RAPID, which focuses on parents and caregivers of young children, and surveys of all Americans more broadly.
He said two-thirds of the survey questions will remain the same each time, and another third will shift based on Capita’s specific areas of interest at a given moment.
Haspel pointed out that for all Americans, life can be stressful, and parenting in particular will always come with its own stressors.
“The issue is, what are the artificial, unnecessary stressors that we put on families as a result of policy choices?” Haspel said.
The answers
One of the main findings from the survey revolves around the economic pressure that families are facing. As the Capita report puts it: “Multiple indicators point to significant and widespread financial stress.”
Here are some of those indicators:
- More than a third were worried at some point in the last year that food would run out before they had money to buy more — and almost as many actually had that happen.
- One in 5 reported skipping out on needed medical care due to costs in the last year, and 15 percent skipped filling a prescription for the same reason.
- In the last three months, 20 percent of households reported a member losing a job or having their hours cut.
- In the last month, 25 percent of respondents said they had a shift canceled, shortened, or extended with less than 24 hours’ notice. The same percentage were required to be “on call” — available without guaranteed hours — during that period.
Financial stress can be a leading driver of “toxic stress.” This compounding, long-term stress can do permanent damage to the health of parents and the development of children — and can sometimes lead to adverse childhood experiences.
Evidence shows that safe, stable and nurturing relationships with adults can protect children from the negative outcomes of adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress. But the survey suggests most parents are struggling to maintain that kind of relationship with their children.
Two-thirds of respondents said that in the last month, stress made it hard to be as patient with their children as they wanted to be. And half of parents reported feeling down, depressed or hopeless in the last two weeks.
There are several questions in the survey that pertain specifically to work and child care. Here are some related findings:
- More than 70 percent of respondents describe their job as family friendly.
- Almost two-thirds said family life is a top priority, and they want their job to fit around it.
- In the last year, 27 percent of respondents missed work or lost pay because of child care problems.
- One in 5 parents regularly supervise their children while working.
Despite the challenges presented by scheduling, about 70 percent of parents report being satisfied with their existing child care situation, whether they have children who are school age or below. And 81 percent said their communities are welcoming to families with minor children.
But 43 percent said their work schedules made it hard to keep consistent routines for their children, and that matters.
“That lack of control over one’s schedule contributes to lack of control over one’s life more broadly, and it can affect parenting relationships,” Haspel said.
As the Capita report explains:
Volatile schedules make it hard for people to be the kind of parents they want to be. They may have to forego baseball games or dance recitals they planned to attend, skip sitting down to dinner as a family, or miss tucking their kids into bed. Instability also has a significant impact on child development. Consistent routines are the foundation for children’s growth, learning, and feelings of security. Chronically disrupting those routines not only stresses parents but also interferes with their children’s long-term trajectory. Inconsistent or nonstandard parent work schedules are associated with cognitive delays and behavioral outcomes, especially if they begin during a child’s first year of life.
“Job quality or schedule quality is often thought of as labor policy, it’s not thought of as a family policy,” Haspel said. “If you care about having strong, healthy families, this is a contributing factor.”
The meaning
While this first set of survey results represents the baseline of what Capita plans to measure over time, there are still significant takeaways from this early warning system.
“A lot of what we’ve been hearing around the issues with affordability, the issues with being able to navigate all the extra challenges of parenting in 2020s America is showing up in family well-being,” Haspel said.
Here’s what Capita has to say about the initial survey results:
This first survey of Quarterly Insights paints a troubling picture of families feeling economic strain and suffering from depression, burnout and hopelessness. These conditions reinforce one another, making it harder for parents to show up for their children, their partners, and themselves, maintain routines and flourish. Ultimately, all of these factors make stability feel perpetually out of reach. While the heaviest burdens often land on those earning the least, working-class and middle-class families also feel the enormous weight of these compounding pressures.
The report goes on to point out that policies supporting the well-being of children and families are most likely to succeed if they address multiple aspects of family hardship and reach all families who are affected.
