Young mothers who feel they lack emotional support or help in caring for their children have a higher risk of developing mental problems as compared to their peers who feel adequately supported. Mothers of small children are known to face a substantial risk of mental health problems and their mental health has a strong influence on their child's health and development. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles conducted a conducted the study to determine how certain parenting-related stressors might affect mothers' mental health and whether these stressors were related to financial and social factors. More than one third of the 1,747 mothers participated in the study. They made mothers of children 4 to 35 months old complete a five-item questionnaire to assess their general mental health. Women who reported feeling a lack of emotional support (they had no one to rely on for day-to-day emotional help with parenting) represented nearly 14 percent of the total sample and were 3 times more likely to report being in poor mental health. Roughly 12 percent of mothers who said they lacked functional support in caring for their children (they had no one to care for their children when they needed a break) had a 2 times greater risk of poor mental health. When asked about time spent with their child, 37 percent of mothers said they spent too little, 11 percent said they spent too much, and 52 percent said the amount of time they spent with their child was just right. While mothers who said they spent too little time with their children had a slightly increased risk of poor mental health, those who said they spent too much time had a 4 times greater risk of mental health problems. Overall, mothers who reported having one parenting-related stressor had triple the risk of poor mental health, while having two or more stressors increased risk nearly 12-fold. Improving family leave policies and making high quality child care more affordable and accessible could help ease the parental stress identified in the current study.
American Journal of Public Health,
May 2007