In need of support: Parental mental health suffers when children struggle to attend school. – 123rf.com
Overwhelming emotional distress experienced by children and teenagers during school times affects whole families, a new study finds.
Parental mental health suffers when children struggle to attend school, and 50% of affected parents develop new mental health conditions, according to researchers in the United Kingdom.
Additionally, parents consider the experience the second most threatening life event, stated a press release from research publisher Frontiers.
Vastly negative experiences with school staff, coupled with many parents feeling blamed and disempowered, were linked to significantly elevated anxiety, depressed mood, and a pervasive sense of fear and dread, the paper published in Frontiers in Psychiatry on April 24 read.
In recent years, the number of students missing school has risen steeply. In the UK, one in 50 students missed more than 50% of school in 2022 and 2023.
Previously, almost 95% of sampled students were found to have missed school regularly because going caused them significant emotional distress, a phenomenon known as school distress. Of this sample, many students were diagnosed with neurodivergent disorders or autism.
But how do kids struggling with school attendance affect parents?
In the first large-scale study to explore the familial school experience, UK researchers examined the issue from the parents’ perspective.
“Supporting a child experiencing school distress is an overwhelmingly negative experience for parents.
“One in two affected parents developed a new mental health condition since their child’s difficulties started,” said first author Dr Sinéad Mullally, a researcher at Newcastle University.
More than 1,100 parents and 19 educational professionals participated in the study, where they were asked a series of questions, including ratings of their daily mood and anxiety levels.
The team also found that a profound loss of trust in school staff was common.
“Parental blame was found to be rife, with hostile and punitive treatment by professionals, making it even harder for families and leading to parental disempowerment,” Mullally said, adding that there is an urgent need for recognition of the very real difficulties that neurodivergent children and young people, and by extension their parents, face.
Parents indicated that their greatest sources of support were groups of parents with similar experiences, their own family, and friends.
Note: “‘I felt shamed and blamed’: An exploration of the parental lived experience of school distress”: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1489316/full
