Stress,Social Resources,and Depression among Never‐Married and Divorced Rural Mothers*

Abstract While the impact of single parenting on women and children has long been a concern, very little research has focused on single parents living in rural areas. Based on a probability sample of 508 single mothers aged 18–39 living in rural Northern New England, the present study: (1) examines the impact of several domains of stress on mothers' depression, (2) considers potential buffering effects of social resources, and (3) identifies variations in conditions and outcomes for divorced and never‐married mothers. Findings highlight the importance of multiple forms of stress exposure, showing independent significant effects of lifetime adversity, recent life events, and chronic stressors on current depressive symptoms. Although emotional support reduces depression, neither support nor living arrangements moderate the impact of recent and current stressors. Divorced women experience more stress exposure, greater vulnerability to stress, and do not benefit from family support to the same extent as never‐married mothers. Possible differences in the meanings that divorced and never‐married mothers attach to current life circumstances are discussed.     

Divorced Parents’ Qualitative and Quantitative Reports of Children's Living Arrangements

We use data from a sample of divorced parents in Wisconsin (N = 1,392) to examine how parents describe their children's living arrangements. When the children spend substantial time in both parents’ homes, both parents are less likely to use the phrase live with to describe living arrangements. When children spend most nights with their mother, mothers are more likely than fathers to state that the children live with their mother. Together, these findings suggest that family researchers no longer can rely on simple questions to capture complex living arrangements. We need clearer and more careful question wording and, in some instances, follow‐up questions to accurately describe where children live.     

Living Arrangements of Single Parents and Their Children in South Korea

As the divorce rate in South Korea increases, an increasing proportion of children are growing up in single-parent families. Given the limited public support and disadvantages for women in the labor market, it is expected that single parents in Korea, single mothers in particular, are more likely to use family ties to mitigate economic and social difficulties, including the option to live with their parents. We assessed the living arrangements of single parents and their children with respect to co-residence with the grandparents of the children using samples from the 2010 Korean Census and the Program for International Student Assessment conducted in 2009. We found that a fairly small proportion of single mothers live with their parents and that the prevalence of co-residence with parents among both single mothers and single fathers was relatively low in Korea compared with Japan and Taiwan. We also found that single parents with a higher level of education are more likely to live with their parents than those with less education, which contrasts with the pattern found in the United States. We discuss the implications of our findings in contemporary Korea, which has traditionally been regarded as a country with strong family ties.     

Understanding Grandfamilies: Characteristics of Grandparents,Nonresident Parents,and Children

Using data from the Year 9 Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N ～ 3,182), we investigated the characteristics grandfamilies (grandparents raising their grandchildren with no parent present, N = 84) and compared them to other key groups, including children's nonresident parents and other economically disadvantaged families with children. Results show that grandparents raising their grandchildren were generally better off in terms of educational attainment, marital status, and economic well‐being than the child's parents. Grandparents raising their grandchildren also had characteristics very similar to other disadvantaged mothers. Academic and socioemotional well‐being were poorer among children in grandfamilies compared with those living with their mothers, but parenting practices were very similar. These findings suggest that although children in grandfamilies may be at a disadvantage academically and socioemotionally, grandparent caregivers are in many ways similar to other fragile‐family mothers. Overall, this study enhances our knowledge of an important yet understudied family type.     

Work Hours,Schedules, and Insufficient Sleep Among Mothers and Their Young Children

Studies have linked parents' employment, work hours, and work schedules to their own sleep quality and quantity, but it is unclear whether these associations extend to children. The authors used data from the 5‐year in‐home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,818) to examine the associations between maternal work hours and schedule and insufficient sleep among disadvantaged mothers and their young children. They found that mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared to mothers who worked fewer hours, whereas children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours. Nonstandard work schedules were associated with an increased likelihood of insufficient sleep for mothers but not their children. The results highlight a potentially difficult balance between work and family for many disadvantaged working mothers in the United States.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Well‐Being in Parenting Across the Arch of Child Development

Limited research on parental well‐being by child age suggests that parents are better off with very young children despite intense time demands of caring for them. This study uses the American Time Use Survey Well‐Being Module (N = 18,124) to assess how parents feel in activities with children of different ages. Results show that parents are worse off with adolescent children relative to young children. Parents report the lowest levels of happiness with adolescents relative to younger children, and mothers report more stress and less meaning with adolescents. Controlling for contextual features of parenting including activity type, solo parenting, and restorative time does not fully account for the adolescent disadvantage in fathers' happiness or mothers' stress. This study highlights adolescence as a particularly difficult stage for parental well‐being and shows that mothers shoulder stress that fathers do not, even after accounting for differences in the context of their parenting activities.     

Feeling Rushed: Gendered Time Quality,Work Hours,Nonstandard Work Schedules,and Spousal Crossover

The authors investigated gender differences in couple parents' subjective time pressure, using detailed Australian time use data (n=756 couples with minor children). They examined how family demand, employment hours, and nonstandard work schedules of both partners relate to each spouse's non‐employment time quality (“pure” leisure, “contaminated” leisure, multitasking housework, and child care) and subjective feelings of being rushed or pressed for time. Mothers averaged more contaminated leisure and less pure leisure and did much more unpaid work multitasking than fathers. These results suggest that these differences in time quality do partially account for mothers feeling more rushed than fathers. Weekend work was associated with mothers having less pure leisure, but not contaminated leisure. The opposite was found for fathers. Spousal work characteristics also related to time use and feeling rushed in gendered ways, with male long work hours positively associated with higher time pressure for mothers as well as the fathers who worked them.     

“First Train Out”: Marriage and Cohabitation in the Context of Poverty,Deprivation, and Trauma

There has been a steep rise in the proportion of children born to and living with unmarried parents. Unmarried parents are increasingly likely to cohabitate, especially low-income couples, placing their children at elevated psychosocial risk. This life history study of poor, White single mothers suggests that the current focus on differences between married and cohabiting poor women may overstate underlying similarities in factors associated with their partner formation and dissolution and that poor women's decisions about marriage and cohabitation must be understood in a developmental context that reflects the stacking, over time, of multiple forms of vulnerability to unstable partnerships, single motherhood, and continuing poverty into adulthood.     

The Time Squeeze: Parental Statuses and Feelings About Time With Children

Policy makers, parents, and the public are concerned with perceived declines in parents’ time with children. Data from two national surveys (N = 1,159 and N = 821) used in this study show that nearly half of parents report feeling too little time with children. Work hours are strongly related to these feelings, even controlling for time spent with children, and explain why fathers more than mothers feel time strain. For fathers, those whose youngest child is an adolescent feel more strain than similarly situated mothers. Controlling for work hours, single parents are not more likely than married parents to feel that they spend insufficient time with children.     

Time Use of Employed Mothers in Korea: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

This study examines the time use patterns of full-time employed Korean mothers who did not use outside household help. To gain insight into the potential work overload of employed mothers, their time use patterns were compared with those of unemployed mothers and of employed mothers in Japan and the United States. Results show that employed mothers in Korea allocate considerably less time to physiological and social and recreational activities than nonemployed Korean mothers. Employed mothers in Korea spend considerably larger amounts of time in work activities and significantly less time in physiological activities than their counterparts in Japan and the United States.     

Educational Achievement of Children From Single‐Mother and Single‐Father Families: The Case of Japan

This article examines the relationships between single parenthood and student achievement in Japan. The study uses sixth‐grade data from the 2013 National Assessment of Academic Ability and the Detailed Survey, which was the first nationally representative parental survey collected through schools in Japan. The results indicate that children of single‐mother and single‐father families perform academically lower than children of two‐parent families. For children living in single‐mother families, more than 50% of the educational disadvantage was explained by a lack of economic resources. For children living in single‐father families, the educational disadvantage was explained more by a lack of parenting resources, measured by discussions at home, supervision at home, and involvement in school, than economic resources. These findings suggest that the gendered labor force and division of labor among spouses in Japanese society may deprive parents of the ability to buffer the negative relationship between single parenthood and children's educational achievement.     

Poverty,Welfare, and the Livelihood Strategies of Nonmetropolitan Single Mothers*

Abstract Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we document nonmetropolitan and metropolitan single mothers' economic livelihood strategies. We have three objectives: (1) examine differences in employment, cohabitation, co‐residence with other adults, and welfare receipt; (2) evaluate how these livelihood strategies are associated with economic well‐being; and (3) identify key metro‐nonmetro differences in the effectiveness of these livelihood strategies in improving the economic well‐being of single mothers. We find surprisingly similar livelihood strategies in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan areas. Employment, cohabitation, and co‐residence are strongly associated with economic well‐being. However, nonmetro single mothers are less likely than metropolitan mothers to benefit economically from full‐time employment. Given our results, “work‐first” policies are likely to be less efficacious in nonmetropolitan areas. Indeed, nonmetropolitan single mothers are often “triply disadvantaged” compared to their metro counterparts; they experience higher rates of poverty, higher barriers to welfare receipt, and lower economic returns from other livelihood strategies.     

Single,Cohabitating, and Married Mothers’ Time With Children

Utilizing the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), this study examines the relationship between family structure and maternal time with children among 4,309 married mothers and 1,821 single mothers with children less than 13 years of age. Single mothers spend less time with their children than married mothers, though the differences are not large. Marital status and living arrangement differences in time with children largely disappear or single mothers engage in more child care than married mothers after controls for socioeconomic status and other characteristics are introduced. Thus, less maternal time with children appears to be mainly attributable to the disadvantaged social structural location of single mothers rather than different proclivities toward mothering between married and single mothers.     

Single Motherhood and Children's Health and School Performance in Japan

This article examines the well-being of Japanese children in single-mother families relative to children living with both parents. Using data from three rounds of the National Survey of Households with Children, I first demonstrate that single mothers report their children to have significantly worse health and lower academic performance. I then estimate regression models to assess the extent to which these differences reflect single mothers’ economic disadvantage, difficult work circumstances, and worse health and experience of stressful life events. Results indicate that economic disadvantage is particularly important for understanding lower levels of well-being among the children of single mothers. I conclude by discussing potential implications of these results for linkages between family behavior and inequality in Japan and for the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.     

Doing It All? Mothers' College Enrollment,Time Use,and Affective Well‐being

The rising share of women in college with dependent children and growing emphasis on two‐generation policies for reducing socioeconomic inequality have galvanized research aimed at determining whether mothers' increased education can improve their and their children's well‐being. Yet as part of this effort, scholars have overlooked signs that mothers' college enrollment may not be unequivocally good for families. This research brief aims to bring greater attention to this side of the story. The authors analyze time diary (2003–2015) and well‐being data (2010, 2011, 2013) from the American Time Use Survey. The authors find that mothers in college experience a time squeeze that limits their time in caregiving, self‐care, and work, on one hand, and school‐related activities, on the other. This time squeeze may explain why mothers enrolled in college (compared with mothers who were not in school) also reported less happiness and more fatigue during activities with their children.     

Do Young Mothers and Fathers Differ in the Likelihood of Returning Home?

Building on research examining “boomerang” adult children, the author examines multigenerational living among young parents. Returning home likely differs between young mothers and fathers given variation in socioeconomic characteristics, health and risk taking, their own children's coresidence, and union stability. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the author finds that more than 40% of young parents (n = 2,721) live with their own parents at their first child's birth or subsequently. Mothers are generally less likely to move home than fathers but only when not controlling for child coresidence and union stability. Individuals who live with all their children are less likely to return home, and controlling for child coresidence reverses gender differences, though this association disappears in the full model. Young parents who are stably single and those who experience dissolution are highly likely to return home compared to the stably partnered, with the association significantly stronger for fathers than mothers.     

COVID‐19 and the gender gap in work hours

School and day care closures due to the COVID‐19 pandemic have increased caregiving responsibilities for working parents. As a result, many have changed their work hours to meet these growing demands. In this study, we use panel data from the US Current Population Survey to examine changes in mothers’ and fathers’ work hours from February through April 2020, the period of time prior to the widespread COVID‐19 outbreak in the United States and through its first peak. Using person‐level fixed effects models, we find that mothers with young children have reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers. Consequently, the gender gap in work hours has grown by 20–50 per cent. These findings indicate yet another negative consequence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, highlighting the challenges it poses to women’s work hours and employment.     

Relieving the Time Squeeze? Effects of a White‐Collar Workplace Change on Parents

Employed parents perceive a time squeeze even as trends from the 1960s show they are spending more time with their children. Work conditions (e.g., hours and schedule control) would seem to affect both parents' time with children and perceived time squeeze, but most studies rely on cross‐sectional data that do not establish causality. The authors examined the effects of the introduction of a workplace flexibility initiative (Results Only Work Environment [ROWE]) on changes in mothers' and fathers' perceptions of the adequacy of their time with children and actual time spent with children (N = 225). Baseline data show the importance of work conditions for parents' sense of perceived time adequacy. Panel data show that mothers (but not fathers) in ROWE report increased schedule control and improved time adequacy, but no change in actual time spent with children, except that ROWE increases evening meals with children for mothers sharing few meals at baseline.     

Life Satisfaction Among Children in Different Family Structures: A Comparative Study of 36 Western Societies

This paper examines differences in life satisfaction among children in different family structures in 36 western, industrialised countries (n = 184 496). Children living with both biological parents reported higher levels of life satisfaction than children living with a single parent or parent–step‐parent. Children in joint physical custody reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction than their counterparts in other types of non‐intact families. Controlling perceived family affluence, the difference between joint physical custody families and single mother or mother–stepfather families became non‐significant. Difficulties in communicating with parents were strongly associated with less life satisfaction but did not mediate the relation between family structure and life satisfaction. Children in the Nordic countries characterised by strong welfare systems reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction in all living arrangements except in single father households. Differences in economic inequality between countries moderated the association between certain family structures, perceived family affluence and life satisfaction.     

Non-parental childcare,time pressure and the gendered division of paid work,domestic work and parental childcare

What impact does out-sourcing childcare have on the time parents spend on paid work, domestic work and childcare, and how they share these tasks between themselves? Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey (TUS) 2006 we investigate the effects of formal and informal non-parental childcare on the time use of couples with children aged 0–4 years (N=348). We examine associations between non-parental care and (1) couples' combined time in paid work, domestic work and childcare, (2) parents' time separately by gender in paid work, domestic work and childcare (subdivided by activity type) and (3) parents' self-reported time pressure. Total workloads (the sum of paid work, domestic work and childcare) are neither higher nor lower when non-parental care is used, either for households combined or for each gender separately. The way time is spent, and how activities are divided by gender does differ, however. For mothers the use of any non-parental care and more hours in formal care is associated with more paid work hours, less childcare time and higher self-reported time pressure. Fathers' time is more constant, but they report higher subjective time pressure with increasing hours of formal non-parental care.