WASHINGTON D.C. — A new study shows dads are just as stressed as moms.
American adults who have children under 18 living at their home experience more joy and more stress than other adults, according to a Gallup poll.
The study found that women report more stress than men on a typical day, but the difference in stress rates between people with children versus people without children is similar for each gender as a whole.
According to the poll, 42% of fathers experienced stress on a given day, while 34% of men without children experienced stress. Comparably, 47% of mothers experienced stress, and 39% of women without children felt stress.
"People should take pause at that," Dan Witters, who wrote the study, told The Huffington Post. "They should take caution around assuming that they've got it worse than their spouse or their spouse is skating through the parenting experience more easily than they are."
Gallup researchers interviewed 131,159 American adults based on five factors that relate to overall well-being: purpose, social, financial, community and physical.
Challenges related to parenting include household routines, behavioral struggles related to mealtime and homework, loss of sleep, teen rebellion and peer pressure, and eating disorders and substance abuse.