Research suggests that single mothers experience poorer mental and physical health than their partnered counterparts. This health differential has been attributed, in large part, to the chronic economic and social stressors to which many single mothers are exposed. Less research, however, has focused on the well-being of single mothers who are employed, despite their growing presence in the Canadian labour force. Using data from a telephone survey of employed parents in a mid-sized Western Canadian city conducted in 2005, the aim of this study was to: (1) compare the mental health of employed, single mothers relative to partnered mothers; and (2) explore the potential role of work-family conflict and psychosocial job characteristics as explanations for any observed differences in psychological distress. Analyses were restricted to 674 employed mothers (438 partnered and 236 single), who were 25-50 years old, with at least one child in the household under the age of 20 years. Bivariate analysis indicated that compared to partnered mothers, employed single mothers reported significantly higher levels of psychological distress, work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. Single mothers were also more likely to be employed in a high-strain psychosocial work environment (i.e., high demand and low control). Multiple linear regression revealed that after adjusting for key sociodemographic characteristics, psychosocial work quality and work-family conflict, single parenthood was no longer statistically significantly associated with psychological distress. These findings suggest that being a single mother in and of itself need not result in poorer mental health, but greater attention needs to be paid to the economic and psychosocial work environment of single mothers, including policies to facilitate work-family balance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-08142008-092512 |
| Date | 20 August 2008 |
| Creators | Dziak, Ewelin |
| Contributors | McIntyre, Laureen, Green, Kathryn, Muhajarine, Nazeem, Janzen, Bonnie |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-08142008-092512/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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