Single Motherhood Is Bad for Your Health

Many social science researchers have investigated the nexus between family formation and health. Almost everywhere, married people enjoy better health than single, divorced or cohabiting individuals. The reasons are varied. Firstly, people that marry generally are in better health before marriage and are thus a self-selected population. Secondly, the couple usually functions as a mutual support mechanism that prevents hazardous behavior such as smoking or alcohol abuse. Lastly, by marrying you extend your network of social relations, and this represents another protective factor when it comes to health.
Most of these studies focus on the effect of marriage, but not on the whole set of events that contribute to family formation. It is increasingly common to have less standardized lifestyle choices, such as living together before marriage, or having children out of wedlock. But what are the effects of these events on the health of individuals?
Using data coming from a new study on American teenagers, it was possible to reconstruct life course trajectories for about 2,200 women aged 15-30 (Barban, "Family trajectories and health: A life course perspective", Dondena Working Paper No. 39). This meant recording month by month when each of these women married, started cohabiting with a man or became mothers. In particular, the study looked into these three aspect in the period of life that marks the passage from adolescence to adulthood. For instance, does having a baby before or after marriage have the same effect on the health of mothers?
The analysis looked at the general state of health, the presence of symptoms of depression, and at two kinds of behavior that are harmful for health: the number of cigarettes smoked and alcohol consumption. In order to avoid sample bias, the analysis took into account the state of health during adolescence, i.e. before the transition to adulthood. Having a baby, getting married or going to live together with a partner before 18 years of age is associated with a worse state of health and higher likelihood of smoking. Also a higher frequency of events is linked to worse health. In spite of this, certain events, like marriage and having a child after marriage have a protective effect on all the health indicators analyzed.
It was also possible to group the participants in the study according to the type of trajectory. And it was possible to separate women who delay family formation because they are pursuing their careers from those following a more traditional path, and thus marry without pre-nuptial cohabitation. In addition, it was possible to isolate the group of single mothers that have their first child at a very young age and live without a partner.
The study highlights that this latter group is the most fragile when it comes to the general state of their health. This is the reason why it's important to look at the timing and the sequence of individual decisions. Analyzing the life course is a useful tool to identify the people that are more vulnerable in society and thus better target the welfare policies aimed at them.