Health advisory on parental stress a step in the right direction, says UC San Francisco expert
It's no secret that the world seems to be getting more and more stressful for so many people these days: One group, the U.S. Surgeon General said is suffering even more, is parents.
"Parents report more stress compared to other adults. In fact, 41% of parents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function," said Dr. Vivek Murphy, in a video put out by his office.
That statistic is so concerning that the Surgeon General published an advisory on the topic calling attention to the issue and calling on society to help address the problem.
Alexandra Sullivan, an expert on parenting stress at UCSF, said she was ecstatic to see the Surgeon General highlighting this topic.
"I'm really excited to see that parenting stress is being raised in the public consciousness as something that we need to prioritize financially and with our policies," said Sullivan, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSF.
She said a variety of factors have contributed to this increase in stress from financial instability to time demands, to isolation and loneliness.
"It makes it a lot harder to focus. It makes it a lot harder to take care of kids," said Sullivan.
KPIX caught up with one parent, Adam Haber, at a South Bay park. He said he definitely feels those stressors daily.
"It is that fact that you're almost always feeling that you can do better, that you could have responded to that situation in a better way, that you could have been more sensitive," said Haber.
Those feelings aren't uncommon, Sullivan said. That's why she believes it is so important society start talking about these issues and working to fix them.
"How to keep this topic prevalent is going to be to keep talking about it, keep addressing it, keep disseminating it in the news and keep allocating funding dollars towards both research as well as healthcare opportunities," said Sullivan.
The advisory by the Surgeon General is something she believes will be a huge step in the right direction.