Almost a quarter (24%) of UK parents always or often feel cut-off from their friends and other means of support since becoming a parent for the first time, according to a new online poll on behalf of Action for Children. Survation interviewed 2,037 UK parents aged 18+ from 20th-30th July 2015.

The research also points to a scale of loneliness that for 22% of parents has gotten worse since they became a parent for the first time. The importance of having a support network for parents to rely upon was made further apparent by a majority of a parents (57%) saying that it is particularly important to have friends who are also parents.

Other findings include:

• More than a third (37 per cent) of parents aged 18-34 regularly feel cut off compared to less than a tenth (8 per cent) of those aged 55+.
• A third (32 per cent) of parents with three or more children regularly feel cut off, compared to the 26 per cent who have two and the 22 per cent who only have one.

Full tables are available here.

To find out more about Survation’s services, and how you can conduct telephone, face to face, focus group or online poll for your research needs, please visit our services page.