Single motherhood has become increasingly prevalent in Germany, with a rise from 1.28 million single parents in 1996 to 1.6 million in 2015. Previous literature has shown that single mothers suffer from higher rates of physical and mental illness compared to partnered mothers. However, little is known about what happens before the single mother becomes a single mother and over the whole single mother episode.
The research question is: which determinants affect women’s health within the transition into single motherhood and over the whole single mother episode? It is particularly important to understand whether health and well-being worsen with the transition into single motherhood, for example, because of the conflicts and the family due to separation, which might then have negative effects on health, or are single mothers a negatively selected group that would be the case when we see first the poor health conditions, for example, depression, which might then cause the separation and becoming a single mother.
Key Takeaways
- Single motherhood has become increasingly prevalent in Germany, with a rise from 1.28 million single parents in 1996 to 1.6 million in 2015.
- Little is known about what happens before the single mother becomes a single mother and over the whole single mother episode.
The Dynamics of Single Motherhood
Changes in patterns of marriage, divorce, and cohabitation have contributed to a considerable proportion of single-parent families in Germany. For example, there has been an increase from 1.28 million single parents in 1996 to 1.6 million in 2015. Previous literature has shown that single mothers suffer disproportionately higher rates of physical and mental illness compared to partnered mothers. However, this literature only focuses on the comparison of single mothers to partnered mothers, and only little is known about what happens already before the single mother becomes a single mother and over the whole single mother episode.
The research question is which determinants affect women’s health within the transition into single motherhood and over the whole single mother episode. It is particularly important to understand whether health and well-being worsen with the transition into single motherhood, for example, because of the conflicts in the family due to the separation, which might then have negative effects on health, or are single mothers a negatively selected group? That would be the case when we see first the poor health conditions, for example, depression, which might then cause the separation and becoming a single mother.
The key challenge in analyzing single mothers’ health and well-being in a longitudinal perspective is to find the right data. We need data that provides all information necessary to identify single mothers. We need the information who moves in, who moves out of the household, and we need the information about the age of the youngest child. It is also important to have several measurements of the socio-economic circumstances. We need to see for several times the income and the employment status and, of course, also the health and well-being.
When we look at the determinants on health and well-being, we see that for the transition, the loss in wealth affects the health and well-being negatively. And when we have a look at the determinants over the life course, we see that the expansion and employment, for example, from non-employed to full-time employment, affects consistently the health and well-being in a positive faith.
Another interesting finding is that when the mother re-partners but the partner doesn’t live in the household, it has a positive effect on health and well-being. As the results show, the employment has a positive impact on health and well-being. It is important to give the single mothers also the opportunity to work. If there is no grandma living close by or no institutional childcare, single mothers simply can’t go working. We know that institutional childcare is important to a child’s development and parental employment, regardless of being a single parent or a partnered parent. But for single parents, institutional childcare is even more important. Therefore, the access to universal childcare should be the top priority for family policies. The implementation of reliable and extended childcare with covering of peak times might bring an improvement in single mothers’ health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family.
It is important to note that the research only focused on single mothers, but little is known about single fathers due to the lack of representative data. However, the number of single fathers has increased in the last decades, and in some countries, single fathers are even the fastest-growing family type. High-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population has the chance to work with all single fathers in Denmark covered in our dataset, and we are having a reasonable sample size analyzing their health and mortality.
Changes in Marital Patterns
The prevalence of single-parent families has increased in Germany due to changes in patterns of marriage, divorce, and cohabitation. From 1996 to 2015, the number of single parents in Germany increased from 1.28 million to 1.6 million. The increase in single-parent families is due to a drop in marriages and an increase in divorce and cohabitation.
Previous literature has shown that single mothers suffer disproportionately higher rates of physical and mental illness compared to partnered mothers. However, little is known about what happens before the single mother becomes a single mother and over the whole single mother episode.
Research has shown that health and well-being worsen with the transition into single motherhood. Separation has a much stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the whole single-parent episode while well-being adjusts over a certain time period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
The loss in wealth negatively affects health and well-being during the transition into single motherhood. For determinants over the life course, the expansion and employment, for example, from non-employed to full-time employment, positively affect health and well-being.
When a mother repartners but the partner does not live in the household, it has a positive effect on health and well-being. Employment has a positive impact on health and well-being, and it is important to give single mothers the opportunity to work.
The implementation of reliable and extended child care with coverage of peak times might bring an improvement in single mothers’ health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family. The access to universal child care should be a top priority for family policies.
Although little is known about single fathers due to the lack of representative data, the number of single fathers has increased in the last decades and in some countries, single fathers are even the fastest-growing family type. High-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population has provided the chance to work with all single fathers in Denmark and analyze their health and mortality.
Health Disparities of Single Mothers
Research has shown that single mothers experience disproportionately higher rates of physical and mental illness compared to partnered mothers. However, little is known about what happens before the transition into single motherhood and over the entire episode. The key challenge in analyzing single mothers’ health and well-being in a longitudinal perspective is to find the right data that provides all necessary information to identify single mothers, such as the age of the youngest child, changes in household composition, income, employment status, and health and well-being.
Using the Socio-Economic Panel (SAP), a representative data for the whole German population, researchers have identified the determinants that affect women’s health within the transition into single motherhood and over the whole single mother episode. The fixed effects regression approach in combination with using the German panel data allows researchers to find the mechanisms behind the potential health disadvantage of single mothers.
Key findings suggest that health and well-being decline before the women become single mothers, which is called the anticipation effect. Separation has a much stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the entire single parent episode while well-being adjusts over a certain time period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
The loss in wealth negatively affects health and well-being during the transition, while the expansion and employment, for example, from non-employed to full-time employment, consistently improve health and well-being over the life course. Repartnering when the partner does not live in the household has a positive effect on health and well-being.
Institutional childcare is important to child’s development and parental employment, and for single parents, it is even more important. Therefore, the access to Universal childcare should be the top priority for family policies. The implementation of reliable and extended childcare with covering of peak times might bring an improvement in single mothers’ health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family.
While little is known about single fathers due to the lack of representative data, the number of single fathers has been increasing in the last decades, and in some countries, single fathers are even the fastest-growing family type. Researchers have the chance to work with high-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population, which allows for analyzing their health and mortality.
Research Questions
The researcher is interested in understanding the determinants that affect women’s health during the transition into single motherhood and over the entire single mother episode. Specifically, the researcher aims to answer two main research questions:
- Does health and well-being worsen with the transition into single motherhood?
- What are the determinants that improve or worsen single mothers’ health and well-being over the single mother episode?
To answer these questions, the researcher analyzed data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SAP), a representative data for the whole German population. The data provided information necessary to identify single mothers, such as who moves in and out of the household, the age of the youngest child, income, employment status, and health and well-being measurements.
The researcher used fixed effects regression to identify the mechanisms behind the potential health disadvantage of single mothers. The analysis focused on intra-personal variation, rather than comparisons between groups.
The key findings of the study are:
- There is a drop in health and well-being before women become single mothers, which the researchers call the “anticipation effect.”
- Separation has a stronger effect on well-being than on health.
- Health declines over the entire single parent episode, while well-being adjusts over a certain period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
- Loss in wealth has a negative effect on health and well-being during the transition.
- Expansion in employment has a positive effect on health and well-being over the life course.
- When the mother repartners but the partner doesn’t live in the household, it has a positive effect on health and well-being.
- Access to universal childcare is important for single mothers’ employment and well-being, and should be a top priority for family policies.
The study focused on single mothers, but the researcher notes that little is known about single fathers due to the lack of representative data. However, the researcher has the opportunity to work with high-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population to analyze their health and mortality.
Challenges in Analyzing Single Mothers’ Health
Analyzing the health of single mothers in a longitudinal perspective poses several challenges. The first challenge is finding the right data that provides all necessary information to identify single mothers, including information about who moves in and out of the household, the age of the youngest child, and several measurements of socio-economic circumstances.
Furthermore, the data must capture individual characteristics in a longitudinal perspective, which requires multiple measurements of income, employment status, and health and well-being. To address these challenges, the researchers use the Socio-Economic Panel (SAP), a representative data for the whole German population, and employ the fixed effects regression, a within estimator for time-varying factors.
The researchers are interested in understanding the mechanisms behind the potential health disadvantage of single mothers. They find that the health and well-being of single mothers decline even before they become single mothers, which they call the anticipation effect. Separation has a much stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the whole single parent episode while well-being adjusts over a certain time period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
The researchers identify several determinants that affect single mothers’ health and well-being. The loss in wealth negatively affects health and well-being during the transition into single motherhood. However, the expansion and employment, for example, from non-employed to full-time employment, consistently have a positive effect on health and well-being over the life course.
The researchers also find that when the mother repartners but the partner does not live in the household, it has a positive effect on health and well-being. Therefore, it is important to give single mothers the opportunity to work, especially when there is no institutional childcare available. Institutional childcare is crucial for child development and parental employment, and its access should be a top priority for family policies.
Although the study focuses on single mothers, the researchers acknowledge that little is known about single fathers due to the lack of representative data. However, the researchers have the opportunity to work with high-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population, which allows for the analysis of the health and mortality of all single fathers in Denmark.
Methodology
The research focuses on the health and well-being of single mothers in Germany. The study aims to identify the determinants that affect women’s health during the transition into single motherhood and over the entire single mother episode. The researchers used the Socio-Economic Panel (SAP), a representative data for the whole German population, to analyze the intra-personal variation of the single mothers’ health and well-being.
To identify the right data, the researchers needed information about who moves in and out of the household, the age of the youngest child, and several measurements of socio-economic circumstances. The researchers used fixed effects regression, a within estimator for time-varying factors, to analyze the data. The approach allowed the researchers to find the mechanisms behind the potential health disadvantage of single mothers.
The study found that there is a drop in health and well-being before women become single mothers, which the researchers call the anticipation effect. The separation has a much stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the entire single parent episode while well-being adjusts over a certain period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
The study also found that the loss in wealth negatively affects health and well-being during the transition, while the expansion and employment consistently improve health and well-being over the life course. The employment has a positive impact on health and well-being, and it is important to give single mothers the opportunity to work.
The study suggests that the access to universal child care should be a top priority for family policies. Institutional child care is important to a child’s development and parental employment, regardless of being a single parent or a partnered parent. For single parents, institutional child care is even more important. Therefore, the implementation of reliable and extended child care with covering of peak times might bring an improvement in single mothers’ health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family.
While the study focused on single mothers, the researchers also highlighted the need for more research on single fathers, as little is known about them due to the lack of representative data.
Key Results
The study focused on the health and well-being of single mothers in Germany. The research aimed to determine the determinants that affect women’s health during the transition into single motherhood and over the entire single mother episode. The study used the socio-economic panel (SAP), which is a representative data for the entire German population, to analyze the intra-personal variation of health and well-being. The fixed effects regression was used to identify the mechanisms behind the potential health disadvantage of single mothers.
The study found that the health and well-being of single mothers decline even before they become single mothers. This decline is referred to as the anticipation effect. Separation has a stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the whole single parent episode, while well-being adjusts over a certain time period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
The loss in wealth negatively affects health and well-being during the transition into single motherhood. On the other hand, the expansion and employment, such as from non-employed to full-time employment, has a consistently positive effect on health and well-being over the life course. Another interesting finding is that when the mother repartners but the partner does not live in the household, it has a positive effect on health and well-being.
The study recommends that single mothers should have the opportunity to work, and the access to universal childcare should be a top priority for family policies. The implementation of reliable and extended childcare with coverage of peak times might bring an improvement in single mothers’ health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family. The study suggests that the lack of representative data makes it difficult to study single fathers, but the use of high-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population can provide insights into their health and mortality.
Determinants of Health and Well-being
The study focuses on understanding the determinants that affect women’s health within the transition into single motherhood and over the whole single mother episode. The research aims to identify whether health and well-being worsen with the transition into single motherhood and what are the determinants that improve or worsen single mothers’ health and well-being over the whole single mother episode.
The study uses the Socio-Economic Panel (SAP), which is a representative data for the whole German population. The approach is the identification of intra-personal variation, and the fixed effects regression is used as the within estimator for time-varying factors. The study is not interested in the comparison of groups, but rather in what happens to health and well-being when a woman changes her status.
The study found that there is a drop in health and well-being already before the women become a single mother, which is referred to as the anticipation effect. Separation has a much stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the whole single parent episode while well-being adjusts over a certain time period and even reaches the same level observed before the mother separated.
The study identified that the loss in wealth affects health and well-being negatively during the transition. Over the life course, the expansion and employment, for example, from non-employed to full-time employment, consistently impact health and well-being positively. Another interesting finding is that when the mother repartners but the partner doesn’t live in the household, it has a positive effect on health and well-being.
The study highlights the importance of providing single mothers the opportunity to work as the employment has a positive impact on health and well-being. Institutional childcare is essential for a child’s development and parental employment, regardless of being a single parent or a partnered parent. The study suggests that the access to universal childcare should be the top priority for family policies, and the implementation of reliable and extended childcare with covering of peak times might bring an improvement in single mothers’ health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family.
The study focuses on single mothers, but it also highlights the need for further research on single fathers. The number of single fathers has been increasing in the last decades, and in some countries, single fathers are even the fastest-growing family type. The study has the chance to work with high-quality Danish registry data covering the total Danish population, which means that all single fathers in Denmark are covered in the dataset, and their health and mortality can be analyzed.
Policy Implications
The study found that the health and well-being of single mothers worsen before the transition into single motherhood due to the anticipation effect. Separation has a stronger effect on well-being than on health, but health still declines over the whole single parent episode. The loss of wealth negatively affects health and well-being during the transition, while the expansion and employment have a positive impact on health and well-being over the life course.
The study also found that the employment of single mothers has a positive impact on their health and well-being. Therefore, policies should prioritize providing single mothers with the opportunity to work, especially when there is no institutional childcare or grandparents available to provide care.
It is important to ensure access to reliable and extended childcare for single mothers, which may improve their health and well-being and ensure a balance of work and family. Universal childcare should be a top priority for family policies.
The study highlights the need for more research on the health and well-being of single fathers, as little is currently known about this group. The use of high-quality registry data can provide a better understanding of their health and mortality.
Future Research on Single Fathers
While a considerable amount of research has focused on single mothers, there is still relatively little known about the health and well-being of single fathers. However, the number of single fathers has been on the rise in recent years, and in some countries, they are the fastest-growing family type.
One challenge in studying single fathers is the lack of representative data, as the vast majority of single parents are headed by women. However, there is a chance to work with high-quality registry data in Denmark that covers the total population, allowing for a reasonable sample size in analyzing the health and mortality of single fathers.
Future research on single fathers should focus on identifying the determinants that affect their health and well-being over the course of their single parenthood episode. It is important to understand whether health and well-being worsen with the transition into single fatherhood, or if single fathers are a negatively selected group.
Additionally, it is crucial to identify the mechanisms behind any potential health disadvantage of single fathers and to explore the impact of factors such as employment and access to childcare on their health and well-being. The implementation of reliable and extended childcare services that cover peak times may help to improve the health and well-being of single fathers and ensure a balance of work and family.
