1. Introduction
A large and growing population of Canadian families with children are headed by lone mothers. According to the 1996 Census, 14.5 percent of Canadian families were headed by lone parents. Of these families, 83.1 percent (945,230) were headed by lone mothers (Statistics Canada, 1996). Many Canadian children experience life in a lone-parent family at some point during their development. Estimates suggest that one quarter of Canadian teens have known life with a lone parent (Marcil-Gratton, 1993).
Children from lone-mother families are known to be at increased risk for a variety of psychosocial problems including psychiatric disorder, social problems and academic difficulties (Lipman and Offord, 1996; Lipman, Offord and Dooley, 1996). Research done internationally generally confirms these Canadian findings. In Britain, children from lone-mother families exhibit more difficulties with behaviour and in school than children in two-parent families (Ferri, 1993). In the United States, children who grow up in lone-parent families demonstrate increased difficulties in childhood, late adolescence and early adulthood than children from two-parent families (Acock and Demo, 1994; Amato and Keith, 1991; McLanahan, 1985; McLanahan, 1988, McLanahan and Bumpass, 1988, Amato, 1988, Furstenberg and Cherlin, 1991).
While lone-mother family status acts as a marker for child difficulties, a number of factors contribute to this increased risk. The majority of lone-mother families are poor, and the association between economic disadvantage and child emotional and behavioural problems is well documented (eg., Lipman and Offord, 1994; Offord, Boyle and Jones, 1987). Low income is an important factor contributing to the difficulties experienced by children from lone-mother families. However, coming from a lone-mother family in and of itself acts as a significant independent risk indicator for child psychosocial difficulties. A number of studies have demonstrated significant effects of family status on child outcome over and above the effects of low income (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1996; Dodge, Pettit and Bates, 1994; Lipman and Offord, 1996; Lipman, Offord and Dooley, 1996).
There are many other characteristics that occur in both lone-mother and two-parent families that influence child health and functioning. These include factors such as low level of maternal education, maternal psychiatric status, parenting skills, family functioning, and maternal social support. Focussed intervention efforts to assist with the specific maternal and family factors strongly associated with child morbidity may be a practical method of helping children.
The aim of this work is to better understand the magnitude of influence of lone-mother status on child well-being, and the magnitude of this influence adjusting for, or controlling for, other sociodemographic and maternal and family factors. Maternal and family factors are rated by mothers (known as personal variables) and include variables such as maternal depression, family functioning, social support and parenting style. Sociodemographic variables include variables such as child age, child gender, number of children in the household, household income, maternal education and maternal employment status.
To examine the effect of family status, sociodemographic and personal variables on child well-being, the following questions will be addressed:
- What is the strength of association between lone-mother status and child outcome?
- What is the strength of association between lone-mother status and child outcome controlling for sociodemographic variables?
- What is the strength of association between lone-mother status and child outcome controlling for personal variables?
- What is the strength of association between lone-mother status and child outcome controlling for sociodemographic and personal variables?
- Which personal variables have the greatest magnitude of association with child outcome?
- Which sociodemographic variables have the greatest magnitude of association with child outcome?
- Which personal and sociodemographic variables have the greatest magnitude of association with child outcome in the presence of both types of variables?
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