TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2006//
TI  - The psychological health of sole mothers in Australia
JO  - Medical journal of Australia
A1  - Young, Anne F.
A1  - Mooney, Rosemary
A1  - Loxton, Deborah
SP  - 265
EP  - 268
VL  - 184
IS  - 6
N2  - 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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0025-729X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -