Exploring the mental health landscape of Canadian parents
ABOUT THE REPORT
The report presents data from MHRC's partnership with Pollara Strategic Insights during our national mental health polling initiative. These findings represent 894 Canadians who reported accessing mental health or substance use supports in the last year, and answered questions about their experiences in an online blind poll between July 2022 and April 2023.
In addition, a total of 31 interviews were conducted with Canadians who are parents of newborn or younger children. All respondents were recruited from those who had answered a blind online survey.
With input from Canadians with lived experience, we explore why Canadian parents of young children show higher levels of anxiety and depression across a number of indicators.
This report analyzes those mental health indicators from the end of the pandemic and explores the underlying issues driving these indicators by conducting interviews with young parents. We achieved a deeper understanding of their challenges by using the large-scale population data we have mixed with these smaller-scale but more detailed interviews.
Key findings:
Our findings indicate that parents' mental health hasn't significantly differed from non- parents in the past year. However, among younger parents with older children, a slightly higher tendency towards depression has been observed. Additionally, our analysis suggests that underdiagnosis may occur among parents who have less frequent medical visits, given the higher likelihood of diagnosis among parents who regularly visit doctors. Moreover, it is worth noting that young people, regardless of whether they have children, face greater struggles than middle-aged individuals.
A collection of our previously released research briefs providing an in-depth investigation of our polling results can be found here.