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 In addition, solo fathers experience the same stress and strain as
single mothers, which is likely related to low income and
unemployment, researchers say.
“We have long known that lone parenthood has negative effects on
parents’ health, but few studies focus on the single father
population,” said lead author Maria Chiu of the University of
Toronto.
Single-parent households make up 27 percent of families in the U.S.,
25 percent of families in the United Kingdom and 16 percent of
families in Canada, Chiu and her colleagues write in Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health.
“We know that, in general, men are more reluctant to seek health
services, especially mental health, because of the stigmas
attached,” she told Reuters Health. “We need to pay attention to the
physical health and mental health of single dads in the same way we
do with single moms.”
Chiu and colleagues looked at responses from 1,058 lone fathers in
Canadian Community Health Surveys between 2001 and 2013. About 12
percent of single fathers and single mothers reported poor or fair
health on a five-point scale ranging from "poor" to "excellent."
Lone fathers were twice as likely as partnered fathers to rate both
their physical and mental health as “poor/fair.”
“The single-father household is the fastest growing family form in
Canada,” said Terrance Wade of Brock University in Ontario who
wasn’t involved in the study.
In Canada, the number of lone fathers has increased at a faster rate
than lone mothers, and lone fathers now make up 21 percent of lone
parents, Chiu’s team writes.
“Fathers are generally not perceived of societally as being the ones
responsible for caregiving and raising children in a patriarchal
society,” Wade told Reuters Health by email. “Lone mothers generally
have more financial stress due to pervasive systemic gendered income
inequality, while lone fathers generally have more caregiving
stresses.”
The majority of lone fathers included in the analysis were over age
45 and previously married. One in five earned less than $30,000 and
15 percent were unemployed. One in five had two or more chronic
medical conditions, and one in 10 had a diagnosed mood or anxiety
disorder. Compared to single mothers, single fathers also had lower
fruit and vegetable consumption and were more likely to be
overweight and binge drinkers.
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Overall, after controlling for demographics such as age and race,
lone fathers with poorer health and mental health were more likely
to have lower income and lower educational attainment and to be
unemployed.
Future research should look at whether single parenthood is a cause
or a consequence of poor health, the study authors note. In
addition, researchers should compare lone and partnered fathers to
absent fathers, said Andrew Howlett of Mount Sinai Hospital in
Toronto, who wasn’t involved with the study.
“Absent fathers are another vulnerable male population that deserves
attention,” Howlett told Reuters Health. “It’s unclear whether men
who transition from being absent fathers to lone fathers experience
deterioration or improvement in their wellbeing.”
Public policy changes could help more single fathers access social
assistance and child support, Chiu said.
“That’s not to say that services available to moms aren’t extended
to single dads, but we do need to account for men being more
reluctant to seek help,” Chiu said. “There may be opportunities for
us to examine structural barriers that exist so everyone can better
receive the services they need.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2igJEAG Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, online December 6, 2016.
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