Open AccessSingle mothers by choice: Mother–child relationships and children’s psychological adjustment.
Author(s) -
Susan Golombok,
Sophie Zadeh,
Susan Imrie,
Venessa Smith,
Tabitha Freeman
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of family psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.138
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1939-1293
pISSN - 0893-3200
DOI - 10.1037/fam0000188
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , observational study , clinical psychology , medicine , pathology
Fifty-one solo mother families were compared with 52 two-parent families all with a 4-9-year-old child conceived by donor insemination. Standardized interview, observational and questionnaire measures of maternal wellbeing, mother-child relationships and child adjustment were administered to mothers, children and teachers. There were no differences in parenting quality between family types apart from lower mother-child conflict in solo mother families. Neither were there differences in child adjustment. Perceived financial difficulties, child's gender, and parenting stress were associated with children's adjustment problems in both family types. The findings suggest that solo motherhood, in itself, does not result in psychological problems for children. (PsycINFO Database Record