Eight in 10 Parents of 0-17 Year Olds Feel Judged for the Behaviour of Their Children
A new study across 28 Countries by Ipsos finds that 8 in 10 Parents of 0-17 Year olds feel judged for the behaviour of their children
A high proportion of parents feel judged
On average across the 28 countries surveyed, around four in five parents with a 0-17 year old (82%) report feeling judged very often, fairly often or sometimes. This rises to 9 in 10 parents in Singapore (92%), the United States (92%), Poland (91%) and South Korea (89%). Countries with the smallest proportions of parents feeling judged are Russia (65%) and Canada (73%).
Around one in ten parents (12%), on average across the 28 countries surveyed, say they feel judged ‘very often’. India is the country where the highest proportion of parents feel judged ‘very often’ (28%), followed by South Africa (23%) and Mexico (19%). Parents are least likely to report feeling judged ‘very often’ in China, Russia and Sweden (all 3%).
Their child’s/children’s behaviour and how they manage it are the top reasons given by parents for why people are judging them, mentioned globally by 46% and 39% of parents respectively. Parents in Italy and Spain are less likely to give these reasons for feeling judged: Only 30% of parents in Italy feel judged for the way their child/children behave, and 25% of parents in Spain feel judged for how they manage their child/children’s behaviour.
The judgement that parents perceive is real and not imagined. A similarly high proportion of non-parents say they judge parents.
Reflecting the high levels of judgement reported by parents, four in five non-parents (81%) across the 28 countries surveyed say they judge parents. This rises to nine in ten non-parents in South Africa (93%), Canada (90%), and the United States (89%). Countries where the smallest proportion of non-parents report judging parents are Germany (63%), South Korea (66%), Saudi Arabia (70%) and Russia (71%).
On average across the 28 countries surveyed just nine in ten non-parents (9%) say they judge parents’ very often’. Countries where the highest proportion of non-parents report judging parents’ very often’ are South Africa (23%), India (20%) and Turkey (19%). Countries where the smallest proportions of non-parents say they judge parents are the Netherlands (4%), South Korea (4%), Russia (3%) and China (2%).
The top reasons given by non-parents for judging parents relate to children’s behaviour – how parents are managing their child’s children’s behaviour (59%) and the way their child/children behave (57%). Non-parents in the United States are particularly to give these reasons (76% and 73% respectively).
Feeling judged has the potential to impact parents’ mental health, which evidence has shown to impair children’s development . Given these detrimental outcomes, feelings of judgement experienced by parents pose a real risk to children’s development.
