Resilience-related Issues are Parents' Top Concern: "Taking the Pulse of Canada's Kids"

According to a recent report by Companies Committed to Kids (CCK), the most important factor to help a child's development is mental health. And, in a survey of over 1,000 Canadian parents, the CCK report "Taking the Pulse of Canada's Kids" reveals that parents are more concerned with their children's ability to be resilient - their ability to "handle life's ups and downs", "manage stress", and "cope with difficult situations" ranked higher on their list of concerns than bullying, nutrition, media influence or screen time.

Despite ranking mental health as most important in child development, and ranking resiliency-related issues as the highest concerns about their children, the report notes that parents and kids rarely talk about these things. In fact, the report found that "parents and kids are much more likely to discuss schoolwork (90 per cent), healthy eating (69 per cent), physical activity (61 per cent), friendships (57 per cent) and technology/media (51 per cent) over managing stress (28 per cent)."

To read the full report, check out CCK's press release, which links to a downloadable PDF of "Taking the Pulse of Canada's Kids."