Excessive concern for their children has made parents overprotective, a 'worry index' has found.
Social workers said the problem had sparked a vicious cycle as overprotection could affect children's ability to deal with failure, causing parents to become even more worried. The survey, by Caritas Youth and Community Service, identified parental worries as children prepared for secondary school.
The findings of the survey, which interviewed 1,366 parents, were announced a day before the results of secondary school allocations were made public.
The allocation procedure often sees parents searching frantically for alternative secondary schools when they do not want the one on offer. Education performance tops the worry list, with 41 per cent of parents saying they were 'quite worried' or 'very worried' about their child's progress at school. Parents also worried about their children dating and having friends of the opposite sex.
They appeared not to worry about their children becoming introverted or having difficulty getting along with classmates and teachers.
They were not worried that their children would be bullied or that they would bully others, the survey found.