The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health has just released the results from the second annual Bay Annual Parent Poll, a telephone survey of nearly 1,800 parents from Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco．San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties in California．
For the second year in a row．Bay Area parents have put their children's emotional health at the top of their worry list, highlighting a health risk not usually discussed．Parents across economic, ethnic, and geographic lines say that they worry about stress, depression, weight, and the impact of family stress on their kids．
Stress and Depression
About 65% of the parents of teenagers say their children experience stress from schoolwork, pressure to compete in school, divorce and family finances．In addition, 25% of the parents worry that their children might be depressed．Comparatively, less than 10% of the parents of the teens are concerned about their children smoking cigarettes, using alcohol or smoking marijuana．
Other Results
Family Time：More than 25% of the parents say they do not spend enough time together as a family．
Media：More than 45% of the parents way that the media have a negative effect on their teens．
It is clear from the results of this survey that parents of older teens are more worried about their emotional health, and I would guess that part of this finding reflects parents not feeling “connected” to their teens．We know that stress and depression are predictors for teens participating in many unhealthy behaviors, including drinking and smoking．
Not only do these results call for schools and health care to regularly assess the emotional well-being of teens, it is also a wake-up call for parents to “engage” with both the health care and educational systems to support changes to reduce the stress our youth are feeling．
(1)
What is the greatest stress for the Bay Area Children in the parents' opinions?
[ ]
A．
Activities like sports, music, arts．
B．
Difficulties with family members．
C．
Pressure to compete in school．
D．
Homework and schoolwork．
(2)
According to the survey, parents worry most about their kids' ________．
[ ]
A．
unhealthy behaviors
B．
emotional health
C．
physical health
D．
school lessons
(3)
How many parents think that the media have a bad effect on their teens?
[ ]
A．
One out of ten．
B．
Over a quarter．
C．
Nearly a half．
D．
About two thirds．
(4)
We can conclude from the results of the survey that ________．
[ ]
A．
children's health risk should be highlighted
B．
parents should help to reduce children's stress
C．
educational systems should be completely changed
D．
parents should prevent their children from bad behaviors
