Mothers’ Well-Being in Families and Family Structure: Examining Constellations of Stressors Across Life Domains

Abstract

Identifying conditions under which parents thrive is a key concern of family research. Prior research often focused on mothers’ well-being in single life domains, yet it is more likely to be shaped by stressors that stem directly from the parenting role and related stressors emerging from spillover processes into other domains. We therefore examine how stressors concerning mothers’ subjective, relational, and financial well-being accumulate and combine within subgroups of mothers and whether the likelihood to belong to these multidimensional subgroups varies by family structure. Using representative German data ( N = 11,242), latent class analysis revealed four distinct subgroups of maternal well-being with varying exposure to financial, psychological, and relational stressors. Regression models showed that particularly single mothers were at risk to belong to the most vulnerable group with exposure to multiple stressors. Findings are discussed in light of persisting disparities among post-separation families despite demographic trends toward growing family diversity.

Change in maternal well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: Did pre-pandemic social support and parenting stress buffer or aggravate mental health disparities among lone and partnered mothers in Germany?

“…Differences in maternal well-being between lone and partnered mothers have been documented by a large body of research before the pandemic (e.g., Avison et al, 2007;Cairney et al, 2003;Dziak et al, 2010;Kühn, 2018;Recksiedler et al, 2023). These disparities arise in part because of pre-existing differences in the distribution of resources and stressors by family structure and could have widened during the pandemic.…”

“…In turn, mothers reported higher ratings of psychological distress and parental stress, as well as lower ratings of life satisfaction, compared to fathers during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Dib et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021;Möhring et al, 2021). Mixed findings emerged on the pandemic's impact on lone mothers (e.g., Hiekel & Kühn, 2022;Mata et al, 2021;Thomeer, 2023), who were already at a higher risk of suffering from poor mental health before the pandemic because of their exposure to multiple chronic stressors (e.g., higher poverty risk, increased time pressure to manage work and family duties; Chzhen & Bradshaw, 2012;Recksiedler et al, 2023;Pollmann-Schult, 2018;Wickrama et al, 2006).…”

Work-to-family conflict and parenting practices: Examining the role of working from home among lone and partnered working mothers

“…Lone mothers have become a more heterogeneous group in terms of age, education, and socioeconomic status over the last decades (Bernardi et al, 2018). Yet being a lone mother is still a strong predictor of poverty and financial strain, fragmented work histories, lower life satisfaction, and poorer health due to the exposure to chronic stressors in multiple life domains (Brady & Burroway, 2012;Bull & Mittelmark, 2009;Pollmann-Schult, 2018;Recksiedler et al, 2021). Furthermore, employed lone mothers tend to experience more time pressure and higher levels of family-to-work conflict (Kendig & Bianchi, 2008;Nieuwenhuis & Maldonado, 2018;Reimann et al, 2020).…”

“…To address the research gap on linkages between work-to-family conflict and parenting practices by family structure, we ask whether the direction and magnitude of these associations vary between lone and partnered mothers. This may occur because lone mothers tend to have fewer psychological, social, and economic resources than partnered mothers to cope with the demands from multiple life domains on their own (W. Bakker & Karsten, 2013;Dziak et al, 2010;Recksiedler et al, 2021). Likewise, when lone mothers have to cope with high work demands, their limited amount of resources may also hinder their capacity for supportive parenting more strongly.…”

Family Thriving During COVID-19 and the Benefits for Children’s Well-Being

“…While LPA has frequently and effectively been used in studying patterns of risk and adversity, it has been less often applied to the study of more general family function. Previous research utilizing person-centered methodologies in family well-being have consistently found a latent subgroup of individuals who are doing well despite stress exposure, including maternal well-being prior to COVID-19 ( Recksiedler et al, 2021 ), Chinese adolescents with largely improving family and social relationship during COVID-19 ( Shen et al, 2021 ), and international families (with and without children) brought together despite COVID-19 social distancing regulations ( Chavez et al, 2021 ). While these studies have found a range of functioning profiles across myriad indicators, their findings suggest that thriving is consistently evident in the wake of adversity.…”