Recently, United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of Parents, which outlines the critical levels of stress that American parents and caregivers are facing. 

According to the advisory, parents in the United States are struggling with overwhelm, loneliness and isolation—and both parents and children are facing unrealistic expectations exacerbated by social media. Parents are exhausted, and it most certainly affects their children.

Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, the Joel and Kim Feller Endowed Professor in the Department of Psychology, has studied parent mental health—and has been offering support and strategies for parents and caregivers—for decades. 

As a researcher with expertise in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a disorder with a strong genetic component, Chronis-Tuscano has also highlighted the strong links between the mental health and wellness of parents and their children. In the case of ADHD, Chronis-Tuscano said that parents with the disorder have trouble following treatment recommendations to provide structure and organization for their children if they struggle with the same executive function difficulties themselves.  

“If we don’t help parents manage their own ADHD, they cannot help the child manage theirs,” Chronis-Tuscano said. “Parents in general tend to put their own needs aside for the benefit of their children, but if they are left depleted they cannot put energy into their kids.”

Chronis-Tuscano is pleased to see that the surgeon general’s advisory has put the need for parental and caregiver support in the limelight. 

“We have been talking about the youth mental health crisis since the pandemic. This advisory emphasizes that there is also a parent mental health crisis that needs attention,” Chronis-Tuscano said. “The more we highlight the impacts of parent mental health on child well-being, it will raise awareness of the dire need for clinical resources, research, funding and policy changes to support our nation’s parents.”

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