The demands of parenting can cause considerable aggravation for families. Parents were asked how often during the past month they had felt that their child was much harder to care for than others of his or her age; how often the child did things that really bothered them a lot; and how often they had felt angry with the child. Overall, parents of 8.0 percent of children answered “usually” or “always” to at least one of these measures of parenting aggravation.

Levels of aggravation appear to be higher among parents of older children. While the parents of only 6.7 percent of children aged 0-5 reported high levels of aggravation, the parents of 7.4 percent of 6- to 11-year-olds and 9.7 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds met the standard for parenting aggravation.

Lower family income is also associated with higher levels of parenting aggravation. Among children with family incomes below the poverty level, the parents of 13.6 percent reported high levels of aggravation, compared to parents of 9.1 percent of children with family incomes between 100 and 199 percent of poverty. Of children with family incomes between 200 and 399 percent of FPL, the parents of 6.1 percent of children report high aggravation levels, as do parents of 5.3 percent of children with family incomes of 400 percent of FPL or more.