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Parenting stress in US families: implications for paediatric healthcare utilization

Jean L Raphael1, Y Zhang, H Liu

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. Raphael@bcm.edu

Child: Care, Health and Development
|January 6, 2010
PubMed

Insights

High parenting stress is linked to increased emergency care visits for children. Addressing parental stress may reduce unnecessary emergency room use and support families.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Healthcare
  • Family Psychology
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Family stress models suggest parental stress impacts parent-child interactions and healthcare seeking.
  • Parental stress may impede timely medical care for children, affecting healthcare utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantitatively assess the relationship between high parenting stress and child healthcare utilization.
  • Investigate the association between parenting stress and emergency care, sick visits, and preventive care.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the 2003-2004 National Survey of Children's Health.
  • Employed weighted logistic regression to analyze associations between parenting stress and healthcare utilization.
  • Controlled for parental mental health, coping, social support, and socio-demographic variables.

Main Results:

  • 13% of US children resided in households with high parental stress.
  • High parenting stress was associated with increased odds of seeking emergency care (aOR 1.24).
  • Factors associated with higher odds of parenting stress included Black race, special needs status, and non-English primary language.

Conclusions:

  • Parental stress is significantly associated with greater utilization of pediatric emergency care.
  • Interventions targeting parental stress could offer family support and decrease reliance on emergency services.
Abstract

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