“Can’t you see I’m hurting?” An exploration of parents’ views and understanding of the effects of everyday life events on children’s emotional wellbeing.

The study examines and explores parents’ views of everyday events that may significantly negatively affect children’s emotional wellbeing. The research is based on the hypothesis that parents may not be aware or fully aware of the potential impact of everyday life experiences on children. This study involves 30 parents; 15 fathers and 15 mothers – who are unrelated to each other – all of whom are parents to children aged five to eighteen years. The parents completed an initial paper questionnaire designed to capture their views on that hypothesis. They were also invited to volunteer to take part in a focus group designed to explore parental views in more depth and detail. By the end of the study, the results showed that parents were generally aware that everyday events do have an effect on children’s emotional wellbeing although their perception of the degree of this impact was variable. Parents also agreed that increased knowledge of the types of negative experiences most likely to cause harm would be beneficial.