American Parents Say Bullying/Cyberbullying Will Impact Kids
Back-to-school time is here again. School children may be overwhelmed with a mix of excitement and anxiety, but parents may also feel the same as their little ones head back to school.
To know the different concerns of parents when it comes to their children’s health, a poll was conducted by C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. The results of the Mott Poll revealed that majority of American parents ranked bullying and cyberbullying as number one of their concerns, especially now that school days are coming.
This key finding was confirmed by Gary Freed, M.D., M.P.H., a Mott professor of pediatrics and the poll’s co-director.
Freed said, “Adults across the country recognized bullying, including cyberbullying, as the leading health problem for U.S. children.”
Trailing behind of some of the parents’ concerns are internet safety and stress, motor vehicle accidents, and school violence.
Here are this year’s top 10 health concerns of parents for children:
- Bullying/cyberbullying (61%)
- Not enough exercise (60%)
- Unhealthy eating (57%)
- Drug abuse (56%)
- Internet safety (55%)
- Child abuse and neglect (53%)
- Suicide (45%)
- Depression (44%)
- Teen pregnancy (43%)
- Stress (43%)
This is the first time Mott Poll has asked parents to rate health concerns for their own children through a national poll.
The Study and Key Results
The respondents of the study included 2,051 adults, including 1505 parents of children age 0-18, from a nationally representative household survey.
The poll has come up with following results:
Parents’ biggest child health concerns depended on their children’s ages. The poll results revealed that for parents of children ages 0-5, pediatric cancer was rated as a top health concern. Motor vehicle accidents, which are the leading cause of death for children age 2-14, were also of great concern to all groups of parents. In 2015, more than 650 children died and more than 120,000 were injured in crashes.
Aside from that, many parents also expressed concerns about their children’s safety online. Cyberbullying has become a menace among children, affecting their mental health and carrying the risk of being lured by online predators.
That is why the author of the study stressed the need for parents to discuss the dangers on online gaming, internet addiction, and communicating with strangers online.
Freed said, “Simple effective strategies may include not providing personal identifying information on social media, chat platforms, or in shared gaming environments.”
In addition, results also showed patterns by the racial/ethnic groups of parents. For black parents, racial inequity was the key issue and most parents were very concerned over it for their child.
