What Do Our Families Need? relief from stress, survey says

Tom Giffey |

sasha w/creative commons
Sasha w/Creative Commons

Considering the stressful nature of parenting – which can be worsened by economic setbacks, health worries, and a host of other problems – it’s perhaps understandable that a recent survey of Chippewa Valley families found that chronic stress was rated as the No. 1 area in which families could use more support.

Brook Berg, family living educator for UW-Extension in Eau Claire County, wasn’t surprised by most of the findings of the survey she conducted of more 600 Chippewa Valley residents, most of them parents. She knows firsthand the challenges many families face, which can exacerbate stress.

“The complex issues that families are facing are different than even 10 or 15 years ago,” says Berg, who previously served as executive director of the Family Resource Center. Instead of facing a single problem that can be addressed by connecting with a particular kind of assistance, many families face multiple, overlapping concerns, such as poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse.

“If you’re worrying about where you’re going to live next month ... you’re probably not as concerned about reading with your child 20 minutes each night or pursuing positive parenting strategies.” 
– Brook Berg, family living educator, Eau Claire County UW-Extension

When asked “What do you feel are areas in which your family could utilize additional support?” respondents gave chronic stress the top ranking (it received an average of 4.4 on a scale of one to 10), followed by employment, budgeting, dental care, and relationship issues.

Dealing with such fundamental problems as finances and mental health can prevent parents from focusing on the finer points that parenting educators might otherwise emphasize. “If you’re worrying about where you’re going to live next month,” Brook noted, “you’re probably not as concerned about reading with your child 20 minutes each night or pursuing positive parenting strategies.”

The survey results also rang true for Erica Olson, director of the Successful Children’s Network at the United Way of the Greater Chippewa Valley. Her program focuses on educational readiness for children ages 5 and under in households with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level. According to 2010 U.S. Census data, nearly 5,000 kids in Chippewa and Eau Claire counties meet those criteria.

“I think in our experience here there is a level of trying to meet their basic needs, and that seems to take a lot of their time, energy, and resources,” Olson says of low-income families.

Berg said that the survey grew out of her desire to find out what families said they needed, as opposed to only assessing what professionals thought the public’s needs were. The evaluation, which consisted of a five-page survey answered by residents between April and June, was designed to measure how parents felt about their needs and how those needs were being met (or not met) by the community.

On the positive side, most respondents (61 percent) said that if they needed help from someone outside their family, they would seek it. Yet the stigma of asking for help was strong for those who needed it. Nearly one-quarter of respondents (24 percent) said they wouldn’t seek help because they didn’t want anyone to know they were struggling, while 17 percent said they didn’t have the financial means to get help. Other barriers included not knowing where to go (15 percent), having already asked for help and being hesitant to do so again (14 percent), and feeling like no one would be willing to help (13 percent).

Olson, of the United Way, said that the number of people who are unsure where to seek help points to a need for an improved network of referrals among agencies. The United Way already supports the Great Rivers 211, a free telephone referral service for a host of community resources, including agencies that provide services for children and families.

One of the more surprising results of the survey for Berg was how highly participants rated their own parenting skills – giving themselves a roughly B+ or  A- average. Such positive self-assessments were even found among jail inmates who responded to the survey.

The survey also asked how connected respondents felt to a variety of people and institutions. Unsurprisingly, people felt most connected to their children, families, and friends (in that order), but only a middling (five on a scale of 10) connection to schools, neighbors, community resources, or the community at large. Berg understands why people turn to their friends or family members for guidance when they have problems, but she noted that crowd-sourcing answers to parenting problems on Facebook doesn’t necessarily yield the best advice.

Nonetheless, in the 21st century, online efforts are likely to have the best chance of connecting with those who need information and advice: 62 percent of survey respondents said email was their preferred method of receiving family-related information. The Web and social media were also preferred over attending classes. It’s because of responses like these that Berg is hoping to use digital media – such as YouTube videos – to share parenting information.

Berg said it’s important to reach parents in a multitude of ways, both online and in person through classes and home visit programs conducted by agencies like the Family Resource Center and the City-Council Health Department.

“It’s hard to reach families,” she said, “and we know having continued contact with families has a greater impact than a one-time meeting with them.”