Survey: Few parents say their children's lives are 'too hectic'

Fretting that your children's lives are over-scheduled? Your worries may be in vogue, but new survey findings suggest that you're an outlier.

A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that fewer than one in six parents believes their children's day-to-day schedules are "too hectic." Among upper-income parents, the belief is more common, at one in five. But low-income parents, who have lots of other things to worry about, the study suggests, aren't buying it: just one in 12 says their kids' lives are too hectic.

These parents fret more about their kids being hurt or getting in trouble with the law, the survey finds — a far cry from too many after-school activities.

The more affluent and educated parents are, researchers found, the more likely they were to say that their kids have too much going on.

"Those are also the parents who are more likely to say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm busy all the time — I'm so rushed,'" said Kim Parker, Pew's director of social trends research. "That speaks to a certain demographic, but not necessarily (to) everybody's experience."

For the study, out today, researchers interviewed 1,807 parents by phone from Sept. 15 to Oct. 13. They found that the more money parents made, the more likely their kids were to participate in sports, religious instruction or a youth group, music, dance or art lessons. These kids were also more likely to have a part-time job, volunteer or participate in organizations like scouting.

Parker and her co-researchers say the findings suggest that financial instability can limit kids' access to a safe environment and to "the kinds of enrichment activities that affluent parents take for granted."

Case in point: the same upper-income parents, who make $75,000 or more annually, were nearly twice as likely as lower income parents to rate their neighborhood as an "excellent" or "very good" place to raise kids.

On the other hand, one-third third of parents with annual family incomes lower than $30,000 said their neighborhood is a "fair" or "poor" place to raise kids; just 7% of higher-income parents gave their neighborhood similarly low ratings.

The findings surprised researchers, who weren't expecting such big wage-related gaps in how parents approach their job, Parker said.

"We went into the survey thinking about exploring some of the current debates about parenting, like helicopter parenting and 'free-range parents,' kids being over-scheduled and 'tiger moms' and all that kind of stuff," she said. "But then when we got the data back, we found that the really compelling fault lines that we were able to identify tended to have less to do with those philosophical differences and more to do with parents' socio-economic status — and we saw big gaps."

Among the biggest: what parents worry about.

Parents at all income levels worry at roughly equal levels about their kids having problems with drugs or alcohol, being bullied or struggling with anxiety or depression. And recent school shootings and terrorism threats have brought all parents closer to the grim realization that their child's school might be targeted, Parker said.

But concerns about day-to-day violence are more pronounced for parents with lower incomes, she said — and for parents who say their neighborhood could be a better place for kids.

Among the wealthiest parents, only 22% worry that their child might get shot at some point. By contrast, nearly half of parents at the lowest income level — 47% — worry about this.

Parents at the lowest end of the income scale also worry more about their children:

• getting in trouble with the law: 40% vs. 21%
• getting beat up or attacked: 55% vs. 38%
• being kidnapped: 59% vs. 44%

Recent U.S. Census data have found that the percentage of single-parent households is growing — and single-parent families are three times as likely as others to live in poverty, Parker said. So the findings could point to a sign of rising parental anxiety nationwide.

"Single-parent households are in a much more vulnerable economic position," she said.

Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo