Mothers With Young Children Are Especially Vulnerable To Poor Mental Health

Mental health can take a serious blow among mothers with young children if they lack some basic daily support. Researchers found that poor maternal mental health can result if women lack emotional or hands-on support with parenting, spend what they feel is too much time with a child or have difficulty paying for childcare. Facing one of those obstacles tripled a woman's risk for poor mental health, while struggling with two or more such obstacles increased the risk 12-fold. The study's authors pointed out that many families with young children have scarce resources when it comes to money, social support and health care. Their study was based on a national survey of more than 1,700 mothers. "To address social, financial and child healthcare access related parenting stressors and maternal mental health, changes may be required in community support systems that are well coordinated with primary care, alongside improvements in relevant social policy," the study's authors said. [From: "Parenting Stressors and Self-Reported Mental Health of Mothers with Young Children." Contact: Ritesh I. Mistry, PhD, MPH, University of California Los Angeles, riteshm@ucla.edu .] The article(s) will be published online May 30, 2007, at 4 p.m. (ET) by the American Journal of Public Health under "First Look" at

(Author: www.ajph.org/first_look.shtml)

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