Inequalities in the psychological well-being of employed, single and partnered mothers: the role of psychosocial work quality and work-family conflict

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research

Ewelina Dziak¹  Bonnie L Janzen¹  Nazeem Muhajarine² 

[1] Department of Community Health & Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, Health Sciences Building, 107 Wiggins Road, S7N 5E5, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;Department of Community Health & Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, Health Sciences Building, 107 Wiggins Road, S7N 5E5, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada;Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of Saskatchewan, Canada;

关键词: Psychological Distress;    Single Mother;    Psychosocial Work;    Financial Hardship;    Decision Latitude;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-9276-9-6

 received in 2009-06-25, accepted in 2010-02-22,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundA large body of international research reveals that single mothers experience poorer mental health than their partnered counterparts, with socioeconomic disadvantage identified as an important contributory factor in understanding this health disparity. Much less research, however, has focused specifically on the psychological well-being of single mothers who are employed, despite their growing presence in the labor force. Of the research which has considered employment, the focus has been on employment status per se rather than on other important work-related factors which may impact psychological health, such as psychosocial work quality and work-family conflict. The aim of this study was to: (1) compare employed single mothers and employed partnered mothers on measures of psychological distress, psychosocial work quality and work-family conflict; and (2) explore the potential role of work-family conflict and psychosocial work quality as explanations for any observed differences in psychological distress based on partner status.MethodAnalysis of data obtained from a cross-sectional telephone survey of employed parents in a mid-sized Western Canadian city. Analyses were based on 674 employed mothers (438 partnered and 236 single), who were 25-50 years old, with at least one child in the household.ResultsCompared to employed single mothers, employed partnered mothers were older, had more education and reported fewer hours of paid work. Single mothers reported higher levels of psychological distress, financial hardship, work-family conflict and poor psychosocial work quality. Statistical adjustment for income adequacy, psychosocial work quality and work-family conflict each independently resulted in single motherhood no longer being associated with psychological distress.ConclusionsWhile single employed mothers did experience higher levels of psychological distress than their partnered counterparts, differences between these groups of women in income adequacy, psychosocial work quality, and work-family conflict were found to explain this relationship. Future research employing a longitudinal design and subject to lower selection biases is required to tease out the interrelationship of these three life strains and to point to the most appropriate economic and social policies to support single mothers in the workforce.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Dziak et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.