Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mental health problems among single and partnered mothers

The role of financial hardship and social support

  • ORIGINAL PAPER
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Research has shown elevated levels of common mental disorders among single mothers compared with partnered mothers. The objectives of this analysis were to examine the prevalence of mental health problems among single and partnered mothers and the extent to which this relationship is mediated by socio-demographic, financial and social support variables.

Methods

Using cross-sectional data from a large, nationally representative longitudinal Australian household survey—the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey—the prevalence of moderate to severe mental disability (as measured by the SF-36) was assessed among 354 single mothers and 1,689 partnered mothers. A series of univariate and simultaneous logistic regression analyses assessed the association between parenting status, the other explanatory variables and mental disability. Mediational analyses were conducted using the ‘explained fraction’ approach.

Results

The prevalence of moderate to severe mental disability was significantly more pronounced among single mothers (28.7%) compared with partnered mothers (15.7%). Including all explanatory factors—socio-demographic, household income, financial hardship and social support—accounted for 94% of the association between single mother status and poor mental health. Financial hardship and social support were the strongest predictors, accounting for most of the predictive power of the other variables.

Conclusions

Single mothers are more likely to experience poor mental health than partnered mothers, and the primary factors associated with this are the presence of financial hardship in particular, as well as perceived lack of social support. Future research should examine the extent to which changes in financial hardship among different family types relate to changes in mental health over time, as well as continue to examine variables that may moderate the relationship between social disadvantage and poor mental health.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (1998) Mental Health and Wellbeing: Profile of Adults, Australia (Cat. no. 4326.0). ABS, Canberra

    Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2000) Household expenditure survey, Australia. User guide 1998–1999 (Cat. no. 6527.0). ABS, Canberra

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002) Australian Social Trends 2002 (Cat. no. 4102.0). ABS, Canberra

  • Benzeval M (1998) The self-reported health status of lone parents. Soc Sci Med 46:1337–1353

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bray JR (2001) Hardship in Australia: an analysis of financial stress indicators in the 1998–1999 Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey. Occasional Paper (No. 4). Canberra: Department of Family and Community Services

  • Brodsky G, Buckley M, Day S, Young M (2005) Human Rights Denied: Single Mothers on Social Assistance in British Columbia. The Poverty and Human Rights Centre. http://www.povertyandhumanrights.org/docs/denied.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown GW, Andrews B, Harris T, Adler Z, Bridge L (1986) Social support, self-esteem and depression. Psychol Med 16:813–831

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown GW, Moran PM (1997) Single mothers, poverty and depression. Psychol Med 27:21–33

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Butterworth P (2004) The prevalence of psychiatric disorders among lone mothers: association with physical and sexual violence. Br J Psychiat 184:21–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butterworth P, Crosier T (2004) The validity of the SF-36 in an Australian National Household Survey: demonstrating the applicability of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to examination of health inequalities. BMC Public Health 4:44. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/4/44/abstract

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Butterworth P, Crosier T (2006) Deriving a measure of financial hardship from the HILDA Survey. Aust Soc Policy 2005:1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill SC, Butterworth P, Rodgers B, Anstey KJ, Villamil E, Melzer D (2006) Mental Health and the Timing of Men’s Retirement. Soc Psychiat Psychiatr Epidemiol 41:515–522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris T, Brown GW, Robinson R (1999) Befriending as an intervention for chronic depression among women in an inner city. 2: role of fresh-start experiences and baseline psychosocial factors in remission from depression. Br J Psychiat 174:225–232

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson S, Korten A, Medway J (2001) Non-disabled cases in a national survey. Psychol Med 31:769–777

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hope S, Power C, Rodgers B (1999) Does financial hardship account for elevated psychological distress in lone mothers? Soc Sci Med 49:1637–1649

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler RC, Turner JB, House JS (1987) Intervening processes in the relationship between unemployment and health. Psychol Med 17:949–961

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lipman EL, Offord DR, Boyle MH, (1997) Single mothers in Ontario: sociodemographic, physical and mental health characteristics. Can Med Assoc J 156:639–645

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mack J, Lansley S (1985) Poor Britain. George Allen & Unwin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • McLanahan S, Adams J (1987) Parenthood and psychological well-being. Annu Rev Soc 5:237–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meltzer H, Gill B, Petticrew M, Hinds K (1995) The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among adults living in private households, 1. HMSO, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolan B, Whelan C (1996) Resources, deprivation and poverty. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Reading R, Reynolds S (2001) Debt, social disadvantage and maternal depression. Soc Sci Med 53:441–454

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sanderson K, Andrews G (2002) Prevalence and severity of mental health-related disability and relationship to diagnosis. Psychiatr Serv 53:80–86

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Targosz S, Bebbington P, Lewis G, Brugha T, Jenkins R, Farrel M, Meltzer H (2003) Lone mothers, social exclusion and depression. Psychol Med 33:715–722

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Townsend P (1979) Poverty in the United Kingdom: a survey of household resources and standards of living. Penguin, Harmondsworth

    Google Scholar 

  • Travers P, Richardson S (1993) Living decently: material wellbeing in Australia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Travers P, Robertson F (1996) Relative deprivation among DSS clients results of a pilot survey. National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS) monograph series number 2. NILS, Adelaide

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinokur AD, Price RD, Caplan RD (1996) Hard times and hurtful partners: how financial strain affects depression and relationship satisfaction of unemployed persons and their spouses. J Pers Soc Psychol 71:166–179

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang JL (2004) The difference between single and married mothers in the 12-month prevalence of major depressive syndrome, associated factors and mental health service utilization. Soc Psychiat Psychiatr Epidemiol 39:26–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ware JE, Gandek B (1998) Methods for testing data quality, scaling assumptions, and reliability: the IQOLA Project approach. J Clin Epidemiol 51:945–952

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ware JE, Kosinski M, Keller SD (1994) SF-36 physical and mental health summary scales: a user’s manual. Health Assessment Lab, Boston, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson N (2004) Income and wealth imputation for Waves 1 and 2, HILDA Project Technical Paper Series No. 3/04. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne

  • Weich S, Slogett A, Lewis G (1998) Social roles and gender differences in the prevalence of common mental disorders. Br J Psychiat 173:489–493

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Whelan CT (1992) The role of income, life-style deprivation and financial strain in mediating the impact of unemployment on psychological distress: evidence from the Republic of Ireland. J Occup Organ Psychol 65:331–344

    Google Scholar 

  • Whelan CT, Hannan DF, Creighton S (1991) Unemployment, poverty and psychological distress. The Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead M, Burström B, Diderichsen F (2000) Social policies and the pathways to inequalities in health: a comparative analysis of lone mothers in Britain and Sweden. Soc Sci Med 50:255–70

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Peter Butterworth was supported by NHMRC Public Health (Australia) Fellowship No. 316970. Bryan Rodgers was supported by NHMRC Research Fellowship No. 148948.

The authors wish to thank Rob Bray, Fiona Dempster and Kim Vella for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Disclaimer. This paper uses the confidentialised unit record file from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either FaCS, the Minister for Family and Community Services, or the MIAESR, and cannot be taken in any way as expressions of government policy.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Timothy Crosier & Peter Butterworth

  2. Australian Government Dept. of Family and Community Services, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Timothy Crosier

  3. National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Bryan Rodgers

Authors
  1. Timothy Crosier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peter Butterworth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bryan Rodgers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy Crosier.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Crosier, T., Butterworth, P. & Rodgers, B. Mental health problems among single and partnered mothers. Soc Psychiat Epidemiol 42, 6–13 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0125-4

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-006-0125-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation