Parents' Perceptions of Children's Worries in a Changing World

The nature and intensity of worries that preadolescent children experience and the extent to which parents are aware of their children's concerns were examined. Questionnaires with three subscales (Physical Harm, Daily Life Matters, and Global Issues) were filled out by 89 6th graders and their parents. Parents underestimated the overall degree to which children worry, and they tended to believe that their children worried most about daily life matters, such as grades and popularity; children were in fact least worried about daily life matters and most worried about global issues, such as pollution and starvation. Both child and parent gender differences were found.