Impact of Relationship Status and Quality (Family Type) on the Mental Health of Mothers and Their Children: A 10-Year Longitudinal Study.

Jasmin Hannighofer,Tanja Zimmermann,Kurt Hahlweg,Heather Foran

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00266

Abstract

Mothers and children of single or unstable relationships have higher rates of mental health problems than those in stable two-parent families. Despite results that mothers and children of conflictual two-parent families also show impairments, most studies do not consider relationship quality. Therefore, the present study combines relationship status and relationship quality to a “family type.” The present study compares German mothers and children of two-parent families with high relationship quality to those from two-parent families with a low quality, single mothers, and unstable families. Data of n = 249 families from a 10-year follow-up longitudinal study show that mothers with a high relationship quality show the highest levels of mental health whereas all other groups show at least a 3.2 times higher probability of mental health symptoms. Children of mothers in unstable relationships show a 8.2 times higher probability to emotional or behavioral problems than children of mothers with high relationship quality. Therefore, not only relationship status but also relationship quality should be combined and this “family type” should be considered in future research.

Highlights

In the last half-century, structure and stability of families has changed dramatically
We found no effects between the groups single parents (SPs), unstable relationships (UP), and low relationship quality (LQ) (d = 0.02 to 0.14)
For the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) score, the effect sizes were highest for children in the high relationship quality (HQ) group compared to the other groups

Summary

Introduction

In the last half-century, structure and stability of families has changed dramatically. Due to increasing divorce rates and decreasing numbers of marriages worldwide, a growing number of children are raised in alternative family types (e.g., single-parent families or unstable parent relationships). Children raised by SPs have a higher probability of developing mental health problems compared to children raised in two-parent families [2, 5,6,7,8,9]. Results of the Millennium Cohort Study indicate that mothers and children who live in unstable families (separation, divorce) have more mental health problems than those of stable families [4, 10]. Most of the previous studies focus on relationship status

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion