Families across England and Wales are facing increasingly complex pressures, with many reaching crisis point before seeking help, according to a new report, Families Under Pressure: The State of Family Life in 2026, published today by Coram Family Lives.
The report provides a snapshot of the most challenging issues affecting family life today, based on data insights from more than 30,000 contacts made to the Coram Family Lives helpline in 2025, alongside analysis of helpline data from 2021 to 2025. The report comes ahead of the school summer holidays, a time when many of these issues are likely to be intensified for families.
Today’s report reveals that pressure around divorce and separation is the most common issue affecting children, raised in over one in five (22%) contacts to the helpline in 2025. Parents reported facing contact issues, feeling unable to make an agreement with the other party, and dealing with the emotional impact of conflict.
Other top issues affecting children, discussed on the helpline in 2025, are the behaviour of young children (0-12 years) – discussed in 20% of contacts to the helpline, and the behaviour of teenage children – raised in 18% of helpline contacts. Children’s emotional and mental health was discussed in 10% of contacts to the helpline, with over two-fifths (42%) of these contacts referencing anxiety, over one in five (22%) mentioning self-harm, and nearly a fifth (18%) involving depression.
In 2025 specifically, conversations about children’s concerning behaviour comprised over a third (38%) of helpline contacts about children and about half of these cases related to children being verbally and/or physically aggressive and violent. These children were more often male, older (12-15 years), and in families where there was neurodivergence. Around 3,300 helpline contacts in 2025 identified risks of harm, with a fifth (21%) of these involving children displaying physical or threatening aggression, underlining the serious issue of child-to-parent abuse within family life.
Analysis of the helpline data between 2021 and 2025 shows that four of the top five issues affecting children – divorce and separation, behaviour of young children, behaviour of teenagers, and emotional and mental health – have consistently remained in the top five most discussed helpline issues over the last five years, pointing to entrenched challenges in family life, with the fifth issue changing from bullying to abuse over 2024-25.
The report also highlights the particular pressures faced by lone-parent households in navigating family life, with single mother families accounting for nearly half (45%) of helpline contacts in 2025. Helpline analysis suggests that single fathers were significantly more likely than single mothers to be struggling with divorce and separation, whilst single mothers were significantly more likely than single fathers to have difficulties with emotional and mental health, and to experience struggling with a child’s behaviour.
Coram Family Lives offers regional, national and online provisions addressing many of the challenges families face. Its free, confidential helpline for families in England and Wales serves as a point of entry for many families, providing both signposting and direct support.
Today’s report calls for targeted action to improve family life, with a focus on early intervention and trusted support. Recommendations for government include funding for open access family support, developing local targeted support for single parents, and earlier response to child-on-parent aggression.
Jeremy Todd, Managing Director of Coram Family Lives, said: Families under pressure need support, not blame. This report shows that many parents and carers are doing their best in increasingly complex circumstances, often reaching out only when they feel overwhelmed or close to crisis. Open-access family support, including helplines, digital advice and parenting programmes, must be recognised as essential early help infrastructure. When parents are supported earlier, children are more likely to feel safe, secure and able to thrive.”
The report was compiled through analysis of service user forms completed for Coram Family Lives helpline users between January 2021 and December 2025. This data explored helpline usage, primary issues for adults and children, demographics of service users, and risks of harm and their contexts. Analysis focuses on data from the year 2025 (January – December) but also compares parts of this data to similar data from the years 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 to uncover trends. The report also includes a literature review on parenting pressures and summarises other sources of information about Coram Family Lives from previous reports.
The full report is available here.