Present on all fronts, mothers single people often have to juggle between caring for children, their professional life and household chores. Unfortunately, this busy life affects their physical and psychological health. This is underlined by an American study published in the journal Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The researchers interviewed 25,125 single mothers over the age of 50, living in the United States, England or in 13 European countries, including France. The study thus reveals that one in five French women is a single mother, compared to one in three women in the United States and two in five women in Sweden and Denmark.
Overall, Swedish, Danish, English and American women suffer more from single parenthood than the other women surveyed. Their state of health suffers, with the appearance after 50 years of cardiovascular diseases, mental health disorders, chronic pathologies and premature deaths. Having experienced a divorce, becoming a mother early (before age 20) and raising children alone for more than eight years are all factors which, according to the study, would favor health problems after the age of fifty.
According to researchers, single parenthood is often synonymous with poverty and precariousness. However, this link is more visible in the United States than in Europe. To explain this inequality, the authors of the study evoke the social protections often more important in Europe (and in particular in France), but also the help of the family circle. Thus, in the countries of southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Spain), the family of the single mother often lives in the same city or in the same district as her, which provides them with material as well as psychological support. even financial. These more surrounded single mothers would then have less risk of diseases related to single parenthood.
The authors therefore hope that this study will encourage health authorities to become aware of the difficulties encountered by single mothers and to take social measures accordingly.
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