Impact of economic problems on depression in single mothers: A comparative study with married women

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Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors that influence depression among single mothers.

Methods

Participants were 195 single mothers and 357 married mothers living in an urban community in South Korea. All subjects completed self-report questionnaires that included the following self-rating scales: the Global Assessment of Recent Stress, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale, and the Korean version of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine independent factors affecting single mothers’ depression.

Results

The prevalence of depression differed notably between the single mothers and the control group, at 33% and 8%, respectively. In the single mothers, young age, low income, residential instability, high stress, and high alcohol-related problems were determined to be associated with depression. Furthermore, after adjusting for covariates, living in rental housing (OR = 11.46, 95% CI 1.72–76.46) was found to be an independent risk factor of depression in the single mothers, while stress (OR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.09–1.24) was found to have this effect on the married mothers.

Conclusions

Practical services concerning economic stability and parenting support should be provided for single mothers to reduce depression among this demographic.

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Most cited references 20

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Unemployment and ill health: understanding the relationship.

Paul Bartley (1994)

To review research relevant to understanding the psychological, social, and biological pathways by which unemployment may affect health risk; to consider the importance of four specific mechanisms; and to indicate some directions for future research. Studies were chosen to illustrate the development of four major hypotheses regarding the relationship between unemployment and ill health, as well as the present state of knowledge. The review therefore includes some much-cited "classics" drawn from a long time span. Where recent reviews already exist relevant to individual mechanisms, these are referred to. Recent (since 1987) reports were sought by searching the BIDS data base. Particular effort was made to locate studies which enabled alternative hypotheses to be evaluated, and to point out where existing evidence is inconsistent or incomplete, indicating the need for further research. To understand the relationship between unemployment and ill health and mortality, four mechanisms need to be considered: the role of relative poverty; social isolation and loss of self esteem; health related behaviour (including that associated with membership of certain types of "subculture"); and the effect that a spell of unemployment has on subsequent employment patterns.

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The co-occurrence of alcoholism with other psychiatric disorders in the general population and its impact on treatment.

T R Pryzbeck, Laurie J Helzer (1988)

It is apparent from previous studies in clinical populations that there is a high comorbidity rate between alcoholism and other psychiatric diagnoses. However, this may simply be an expression of Berkson's bias (i.e., an increased tendency for persons with multiple diagnoses to seek and receive treatment and thus fall into study populations drawn from treatment sources). In this article, we use data from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area survey to examine the comorbidity between alcohol abuse and dependence, other substances of abuse and nonsubstance psychiatric disorders in a sample of approximately 20,000 persons drawn from the general population. We also examine the effect of comorbidity on psychiatric treatment. Every one of the psychiatric diagnoses we examined was more likely to occur in alcoholics than in nonalcoholics. Associations were particularly strong with antisocial personality disorder, other substance use and mania. The association between alcoholism and depressive disorders was positive but not very strong. The presence of other illnesses increased the likelihood of utilization of treatment services by alcoholics but did not increase the likelihood that drinking problems would be communicated to a doctor. The findings confirm prior studies of comorbidity in clinical samples and suggest the need for increased vigilance toward alcoholism by physicians.

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Stress, social support and depression in single and married mothers.

John Cairney, Michael Boyle, David R Offord … (2003)

This study examined the effect of stress and social support on the relationship between single-parent status and depression. A secondary data analysis of the 1994-95 National Population Health Survey was conducted. Single and married mothers who participated in the survey were derived from the general sample (N = 2,921). Logistic regression techniques were used to assess the mediating and moderating effects of stress and social support on the relationship between family structure and depression. Bivariate analyses showed that, compared to married mothers, single mothers were more likely to have suffered an episode of depression (12-month prevalence), to report higher levels of chronic stress, more recent life events and a greater number of childhood adversities. Single mothers also reported lower levels of perceived social support, social involvement and frequency of contact with friends and family than married mothers. The results of the multivariate analyses showed that, together, stress and social support account for almost 40% of the relationship between single- parent status and depression. We also found a conditional effect of stress on depression by family structure. Life events were more strongly related to depression in married than in single mothers. A substantial part of the association between single-parent status and depression can be accounted for by differences in exposure to stress and social support. Our results suggest that it is important to examine multiple sources of stress, as exposure to both distal and proximal stressors were higher among single mothers. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Ga Eun Kim:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3188-0090

Role: ConceptualizationRole: MethodologyRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing

Hee-Yeon Choi: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draft

Eui-Jung Kim: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing

Kenji Hashimoto: Role: Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE

Journal ID (publisher-id): plos

Journal ID (pmc): plosone

Title: PLoS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203

Publication date (Electronic): 24 August 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 13

Issue: 8

Electronic Location Identifier: e0203004

Affiliations

[1 ] Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

[2 ] Deadong Hospital, Daegu, Korea

Chiba Daigaku, JAPAN

Author notes

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

* E-mail: christie@ 123456ewha.ac.kr

Author information

Ga Eun Kim http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3188-0090

Article

Publisher ID: PONE-D-18-15139

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203004

PMC ID: 6108495

PubMed ID: 30142180

SO-VID: b978041e-3bcc-4729-8034-8dfb7eb6e683

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 21 May 2018

Date accepted : 13 August 2018

Page count

Figures: 0, Tables: 5, Pages: 14

Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Custom metadata

Data Availability The authors confirm that some access restrictions apply to the data underlying the findings as the data contain clinical information for research participants. Please contact christie@ 123456ewha.ac.kr at the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University for requests of the dataset.

Impact of economic problems on depression in single mothers: A comparative study with married women

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Abstract

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

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Most cited references 20

Unemployment and ill health: understanding the relationship.

The co-occurrence of alcoholism with other psychiatric disorders in the general population and its impact on treatment.

Stress, social support and depression in single and married mothers.

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