- Title
- The psychological health of sole mothers in Australia
- Creator
- Loxton, Deborah; Mooney, Rosemary; Young, Anne F.
- Relation
- Medical Journal of Australia (eMJA) Vol. 184, Issue 6, p. 265-268
- Relation
- http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/184_06_200306/lox10718_fm.html
- Publisher
- Australasian Medical Publishing Company
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2006
- Description
- 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.
- Subject
- sole mothers; psychological health; depression; Australia
- Identifier
- uon:1177
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/26877
- Identifier
- ISSN:0025-729X
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