Quarterly survey flags parents’ economic strain and mental toll

Quarterly survey – A new national survey of 1,000 parents with children under 18 finds widespread financial stress, disrupted schedules, and a heavy mental-health burden—depression, burnout, and hopelessness—prompting Capita to frame the results as an early warning system for fa

For the first time, a national snapshot is being tracked on a quarterly clock—capturing what life feels like for parents of children under 18 when money runs thin and schedules won’t hold.

Capita launched the new national survey, Quarterly Insights from American Families, in partnership with YouGov. It will be conducted quarterly. The survey is meant to serve as a baseline and, in Capita’s words, an “early warning system for family well-being.”

“This is the baseline,” said Elliot Haspel, a senior fellow with Capita. “We really want to be able to ask questions that serve as an early warning system for family well-being.”

What stood out to Haspel was the immediate pressure on households. “How much parents are facing precarity right now… I think that it tells us that families are really struggling and they really need support.”

The survey’s results center on economic strain—but the emotional and day-to-day impact is hard to miss. In one set of findings, Haspel and the report point to depression, burnout, and hopelessness alongside financial stressors, linking the two in the lived experience of parenting.

The survey asked 1,000 parents with children under age 18 between Feb. 2 and Feb. 16, 2026. North Carolina is one of four states that were oversampled in the survey, meaning the results are especially representative of those facing parents in our state.

The questionnaire is built from 69 questions (available here). Capita says it is designed to track families across three dimensions: stability, predictability, and quality of life.

Stability: Can families meet basic needs without falling into crisis?
Predictability: Can they plan their lives without constant disruption?
Quality of life: Do they have the time, health, and connection to flourish, not just survive?

Haspel described the survey as filling a gap between surveys such as RAPID—focused on parents and caregivers of young children—and broader surveys of all Americans.

He said two-thirds of the survey questions will remain the same each time, and another third will shift based on Capita’s specific areas of interest at a given moment.

The baseline results come with numbers that underline how financial pressure is spilling into health care, food security, employment, and even the ability to keep routines at home.

More than a third of parents said they were worried at some point in the last year that food would run out before they had money to buy more—and almost as many actually had that happen. One in 5 reported skipping out on needed medical care due to costs in the last year. and 15% skipped filling a prescription for the same reason.

Work instability also showed up. In the last three months, 20% of households reported a member losing a job or having their hours cut. In the last month, 25% of respondents said they had a shift canceled, shortened, or extended with less than 24 hours’ notice. The same percentage were required to be “on call”—available without guaranteed hours—during that period.

Capita ties financial stress to “toxic stress,” describing it as a compounding, long-term stress that can do permanent damage to the health of parents and the development of children and can sometimes lead to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Evidence shows that safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with adults can protect children from the negative outcomes of ACEs and toxic stress. But the survey suggests most parents are struggling to maintain that kind of relationship with their children.

Two-thirds of respondents said that in the last month, stress made it hard to be as patient with their children as they wanted to be. And half of parents reported feeling down, depressed, or hopeless in the last two weeks.

Work and child care were part of the survey, too. More than 70% of respondents describe their job as family friendly, and almost two-thirds said family life is a top priority and they want their job to fit around it.

Yet the report also shows the friction between those ideals and real schedules. In the last year, 27% of respondents missed work or lost pay because of child care problems. One in 5 parents regularly supervise their children while working.

Still, parents weren’t universally dissatisfied with child care. Despite challenges presented by scheduling. about 70% of parents report being satisfied with their existing child care situation. whether they have children who are school age or below. And 81% said their communities are welcoming to families with minor children.

But routines—again—ran into barriers. Forty-three percent said their work schedules made it hard to keep consistent routines for their children.

“That lack of control over one’s schedule contributes to lack of control over one’s life more broadly, and it can affect parenting relationships,” Haspel said.

The Capita report describes what that disruption can mean in the everyday calendar of family life: volatile schedules make it hard for people to be the kind of parents they want to be. leading them to forego baseball games or dance recitals they planned to attend. skip sitting down to dinner as a family. or miss tucking their kids into bed. It also says consistent routines are the foundation for children’s growth. learning. and feelings of security. and that chronically disrupting those routines not only stresses parents but interferes with children’s long-term trajectory. The report adds that inconsistent or nonstandard parent work schedules are associated with cognitive delays and behavioral outcomes. especially if they begin during a child’s first year of life.

Haspel also challenged how the issue is usually framed. “Job quality or schedule quality is often thought of as labor policy, it’s not thought of as a family policy,” he said. “If you care about having strong, healthy families, this is a contributing factor.”

The survey is still early. These first results are framed as a baseline of what Capita plans to measure over time. Even so, the takeaways are being treated as a warning signal rather than a one-off snapshot.

“A lot of what we’ve been hearing around the issues with affordability, the issues with being able to navigate all the extra challenges of parenting in 2020s America is showing up in family well-being,” Haspel said.

Capita’s initial assessment of the findings is blunt: the first survey of Quarterly Insights paints “a troubling picture of families feeling economic strain and suffering from depression. burnout. and hopelessness.” Capita says these conditions reinforce one another. making it harder for parents to show up for their children. their partners. and themselves. maintain routines. and flourish. “Ultimately, all of these factors make stability feel perpetually out of reach.”.

The report also says while the heaviest burdens often land on those earning the least, working-class and middle-class families also feel the enormous weight of these compounding pressures.

In its policy framing, Capita argues that policies supporting the well-being of children and families are most likely to succeed if they address multiple aspects of family hardship and reach all families who are affected.

There’s one correction embedded in this release: an editor’s note states the article was corrected to say that four states were oversampled in the Capita survey.

Capita YouGov Quarterly Insights from American Families parents family well-being economic strain depression burnout hopelessness toxic stress ACEs child care work schedules stability predictability