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The psychological health of sole mothers in Australia
Author(s) -
Loxton Deborah,
Mooney Rosemary,
Young Anne F
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00234.x
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , medicine , mental health , odds ratio , harm , cross sectional study , psychological intervention , demography , psychiatry , psychology , social psychology , pathology , sociology , economics , macroeconomics
Objective: To determine the psychological wellbeing of sole mothers in Australia. Design: Cross‐sectional analyses of survey data from The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Participants: 9689 younger women (aged 22–27 years) surveyed in 2000 and 12 338 mid‐age women (aged 47–52 years) surveyed in 1998. Main outcome measures: Demographic characteristics and economic status; prevalence of suicidal thoughts, self‐harm, and psychoactive medication use; depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale) and psychological health (the Mental Health Component Score of the Medical Outcome Short Form Health Survey [SF‐36]). Results: Among the younger women, sole mothers were more likely than other women to have experienced suicidal thoughts (odds ratio [OR], 2.18; 95% CI, 1.45–3.27) and self‐harm (OR, 3.25; 95% CI, 1.97–5.38). Among the younger and mid‐age women, sole mothers were the group most likely to have used medication for depression (ORs, 2.75 [95% CI, 1.76–4.30] and 2.29 [95% CI, 1.56–3.37], respectively). They were more than twice as likely to have experienced depression, and had significantly poorer psychological health ( P < 0.001). After adjusting for economic status, only depression and psychological health remained significantly associated with sole motherhood, and the strength of these relationships was reduced. Conclusions: Economic status partly accounts for the relatively poorer psychological health of sole mothers. Sole mothers are more likely than other women to experience debilitating psychological health problems.