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Breaking the Cycle: How Parental Mental Health Affects Kids — and What to Do About It (centerforhealthjournalism.org)

 

The need to come to terms with how parental mental health influences the mental health of children has come into sharper focus as the US grapples with a crisis of children experiencing higher rates of anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide. (Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)

Author: To read Blanca Torres' article, please click here.



Pandemic 'forced us to look at the shadows'

During the first year of the pandemic, nearly two-thirds of caregivers, including parents, reported adverse mental or behavioral health symptoms, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. The survey also found that 27% of parents of children under 18 reported that their mental health worsened during the pandemic.

The need to come to terms with how parental mental health influences the mental health of children has come into sharper focus as the United States grapples with a crisis of children experiencing higher rates of anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide.

In 2020, California saw a 70% increase in kids being diagnosed with anxiety or depression. That’s 1 in 8, up from 1 in 14 in 2016, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation (PDF).

Children of color suffer the most, say experts, because services remain inaccessible to them for a variety of reasons.

“One thing the pandemic did is that it forced us to look at the shadows, the darker things, both within ourselves and within our communities that need attention,” said Tlazoltiani Jessica Zamarripa, who co-founded the Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology with her husband, Manuel X. Zamarripa

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