The number of parents in the US reporting ‘aggravation’ with their children has increased substantially since 1997, according to new research from Child Trends.

Their new report “Do parents feel more aggravated these days? Parental aggravation in the US 1997-2012”, found that between 1997 and 2007 the proportion of parents reporting aggravation increased substantially, from 20 to 35 percent, and stayed at approximately that level from 2007 to 2012. Research finds that, on average, children of parents with high levels of aggravation are less well-adjusted and experience more negative outcomes.

The study examined data from two nationally representative surveys – the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF), and the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). It examined three variables: how often the child does things that really bother the parent; how often the parent has felt the child is much harder to care for than most other children of the same age; and how often the parent has felt angry with the child.

The study’s authors wrote “Parental aggravation was considered present if a parent reported they had such feelings at least ‘sometimes’ on all three items, or if any combination of responses yielded a total score of three or higher on a zero-to-nine-point scale.”

The report identified no clear link between “the prevalence of parental aggravation and the national economic downturn of 2007-2009. It is likely that aggravation in the parental role is affected by numerous factors, including the characteristics of both child and parent, parental education, and the availability of social support.”