2025年美国儿童与家庭状况

THE STATE OFKIDS AND FAMILIESIN AMERICA 2025 Credits Introduction Parents and young people have notable concerns about howthings are going for kids and families today, ranging from theneed to improve education and expand access to mentalhealth care to enforcing regulations to improve tech and socialmedia experiences for youth, and the government doing abetter job of meeting families' basic needs. When they thinkabout the future, parents, kids, and teens are more hopefuland positive than fearful and negative, but parents' anxietiesabout the affordability of housing and post-secondary educa-tion abound. Across the U.S., families are navigating a landscape marked bypressing challenges. On behalf of Common Sense Media, LakeResearch Partners and Echelon Insights conducted twosurveys—one among parents of children of any age, andanother among kids and teens age 12 to 17—that offer adetailed portrait of what life looks like for families today.These surveys provide insights into the state of American kidsand families through an exploration of current attitudesamong parents and young people, their most salient concerns,their hopes for the new presidential administration, and solu-tions that they support on the issues that matter. The nation is at a critical crossroads for families, with signifi-cant changes on multiple fronts with the arrival of the Trumpadministration. Contrary to conventional wisdom, parentsacross party lines share many of the same concerns andsupport the same goals to improve the lives of families andchildren: high-quality education, proactive government poli-cies and investments at the state and federal levels, andstronger families. Parents and young people alike believe thatelected leaders and politicians are not prioritizing policies forkids and teenagers enough and should invest more in kids andfamilies. The nation is divided, but parents across the politicalspectrum share a lot of common ground on the practical path-ways through our challenges. In 2024, Common Sense Media released a survey about likely2024 voters, including parent voters, as well as kids and teen-agers. In last year's survey, parent voters shared the sameconcerns as non-parent voters about the economy and thefuture of American children. There is a strong continuity in theresponses—parents this year and voters in last year's surveysee a real opportunity to improve education, and they wantaction to safeguard youth mental health. Just like this year,survey respondents across party lines favored investment inkids and families, saw a role for government, and thought thatpoliticians are failing to deliver. This year, we wanted to digdeeper into attitudes among parents, and many of thesetrends held consistent, with parents expressing strong bipar-tisan support for family-focused policies despite deepskepticism about government action. Key Findings 1.The Generation Gap That Isn't. Parents, as well as kids and teenagers, think that things arenot going well for American families right now,with 58% ofparents and 61% of kids and teens saying things are going justfair or poor for families like theirs.But they are more hopefuland positive than concerned and negative when they look tothe future.When thinking about the future for kids, the topemotion that parents feel is "hopeful" (49%), and the top emo-tions that kids and teens feel when they think about theirfuture are "hopeful" (44%) and "excited" (42%). 2.Lost Ground: Parents Perceivea Decline in Children's Resilienceand Well-Being. Parents see deterioration in markers of well-being for kidsand teenagers compared to 20 years ago.Parents thinktoday's kids and teens are doing worse than children were20 years ago in their ability to be resilient in the face ofadversity (52% worse off), their ability to be independent andself-sufficient (55% worse off), the foods they typically eat(53% worse off), the air and water quality (60% worse off),and the amount of physical exercise they get (64% worse off).Parents also think today's children lag behind children 20years ago when it comes to the values and morals they aretaught (61% worse off). Parents whose children are 18 orolder are more likely than parents of children under age 18 tothink that today's children are worse off in these areas. 3.American Dreams Deferred. Parents feel strong economic pressures today,with 73% ofparents concerned about children's future economic opportu-nities, and 39% of parents with children under 18 saying it hasbecome harder to afford the things they need for their chil-dren compared to last year.When they look ahead, twocritical economic agenda items emerge for their children:education and cost of housing.Parents are not confident thattoday's children will be able to afford housing (66% are only alittle or not at all confident) and post-high school education(62% are only a little or not at all confident) in the future. 4.A Silent Emergency Speaks. The mental health crisis is urgent, and young people i