This week, PEGS released its second annual parent survey. The responses are submitted anonymously online by parents who are experiencing CPA and, to the best of our knowledge, are the largest surveys of their kind undertaken to date in the UK. Each survey was completed by roughly 200 parents or caregivers – meaning while the experiences described by the respondents won’t be reflective of every single person’s experience of CPA, they do give us a good insight into the types of behaviour happening, professional support sought and the impact upon households.

What’s the purpose of the survey?

Knowledge is crucial if we’re able to build up an effective network of support systems for parents, carers and guardians. Alongside the vital research being undertaken by academics in the UK and beyond, PEGS has supported a large number of parents over the last three years and so we’re able to reach out to those people in order to gather information about their experiences.

The surveys add to the existing range of research and statistics, and help us develop a more accurate picture of Child to Parent Abuse and its impacts. As well as being able to present the report to frontline professionals and decision-makers, we also carefully analyse the responses to ensure the services PEGS offers are in-line with what parents are telling us they need.

What do we ask and why?

The survey broadly seeks to ascertain information about the household demographics, the types of behaviours being experienced and who they are displayed towards (for example, siblings and pets as well as parental figures), and about the child themselves.

We ask how old the child was when the parent felt their behaviours escalated beyond ‘typical’ challenging or boundary-pushing into CPA.

This helps us evidence the need for support for all parents no matter the age of their child, and also shows us how long before some families seek support. To bolster our knowledge about this, we also ask parents to tell us how much time elapsed before they reached out to a professional.

And that’s because in an ideal world parents would feel able to seek outside assistance as soon as they felt they needed to, and any professional they approached – a teacher, GP, social worker etc – would be equipped with the knowledge and ability to respond appropriately and effectively, so that support was put in place for that parent.

We enquire about the impact upon the parent, from a social, health, and career perspective, and we also ask which professionals they’ve been in contact with and how supported they felt. It’s important for us to understand who families are likely to approach, so that we can concentrate on upskilling those people. Responses about how supported they felt help us to understand what parents are asking for, and how to bridge the gap between what’s on offer currently and what the ideal situation would be for those families seeking assistance.

What do we hope will happen?

We hope the survey will prove insightful for professionals, help inform decision making going forward, evidence the need for joined-up support and effective CPA policies, and help raise more awareness of CPA.

Because waiting months or years to seek help only to find inadequacies or a lack of understanding within the system isn’t okay. Being blamed for behaviours you are experiencing isn’t okay. And the more of us who are aware of the reality for many thousands of parents in the UK today, the more we can do to call for better support.