Official Statistics

Data tables: children living with parents in emotional distress, 2020 update

Published 25 March 2020

Table 1: proportion of children living with at least one parent reporting symptoms of emotional distress

Category 2010 to 2011 2011 to 2012 2012 to 2013 2013 to 2014 2014 to 2015 2015 to 2016 2016 to 2017 2017 to 2018
  (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
                 
Proportion of children living with at least one parent reporting symptoms of emotional distress 27.3 28.1 25.8 28.5 25.6 26.5 29.0 30.4
Proportion of children where mother is reporting symptoms of emotional distress 21.0 21.4 21.4 20.7 19.1 20.2 22.3 23.6
Proportion of children where father is reporting symptoms of emotional distress 12.1 12.6 10.3 13.8 11.8 11.4 12.1 12.5
Proportion of children where both mother and father are reporting symptoms of emotional distress 3.7 3.8 4.4 3.6 3.4 3.3 3.6 3.6

Source: Understanding Society survey, 2010 to 2018 (UK)

Table 2: proportion of children living with at least one parent reporting symptoms of emotional distress, by family type and work status

2017-2018 Workless family At least one parent working
  (%) (%)
Lone-parent family 46.3 31.1
Couple-parent family 48.4 28.2

Source: Understanding Society survey, 2017 to 2018 (UK)