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.
Highlights
The well-being of parents across the life course has long been a key concern of family sociology and related social sciences for two mains reasons (e.g., Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020; Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010)
It can be seen that AIC, BIC, and the sample size-adjusted BIC (SABIC) continued to decrease across all models, which would indicate
Mothers in stepfamilies had a significantly higher likelihood to be grouped into Class 2 and Class 4 as well, but were only less likely to belong to Class 3 compared to mothers in two-parent families
Summary
The well-being of parents across the life course has long been a key concern of family sociology and related social sciences for two mains reasons (e.g., Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020; Umberson, Pudrovska, & Reczek, 2010). The well-being of parents is likely to be shaped by stressors that stem directly from one’s role as a parent, as well as subsequent, secondary stressors spilling over into other life domains (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020; Pearlin, 2010). To fill this gap, our study uses a broader, multidimensional definition of well-being that considers stressors concerning parents’ subjective (e.g., mental health; Diener, Scollon, & Lucas, 2009), relational (e.g., conflicts and role strain), and financial well-being (e.g., household income). Given that mothers still assume a larger share of (child)care-related duties in families (Schoppe-Sullivan & Fagan, 2020), and that the vast majority of single-parent households are femaleheaded (Bernardi, Mortelmans, & Larenza, 2018), our study focuses on mothers’ well-being
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
