Open Access, Peer-reviewed
pISSN 1015-4817
eISSN 2289-0963
    J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc. 2016 May;55(2):114-121. Korean.
    Published online May 31, 2016.
    https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2016.55.2.114
    Copyright © 2016 Korean Neuropsychiatric Association
    Original Article

    A Study on Sociodemographic and Psychological Factors Affecting the Quality of Life in Urban-Dwelling Single Mothers

    Ga Eun Kim, MD, Hee-Yeon Choi, MD and Eui-Jung Kim, MD, PhD
      • Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.
    • Address for correspondence: Eui-Jung Kim, MD, PhD. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, 1071 Anyangcheon-ro, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul 07985, Korea. Tel +82-2-2650-5164, Fax +82-2-2650-5045, Email: christie@ewha.ac.kr
    Received February 15, 2016; Revised March 21, 2016; Accepted April 24, 2016.

    Abstract

    Objectives

    The aim of this study was to examine socio-demographic and psychological variables and the correlation of their factors with quality of life (QOL) in urban-dwelling single mothers.

    Methods

    Participants were 195 single mothers living in an urban community in South Korea. Participants completed self-report questionnaires examining socio-demographic characteristics and including the following self-rating scales : the global assessment of recent stress, the center for epidemiologic studies depression scale, the scale for suicidal ideation, the Korean version of the alcohol use disorder identification test, and the World Health Organization QOL assessment instrument.

    Results

    Regarding socio-demographic variables, high educational level (p=0.009), high monthly income (p<0.001), living in own house (p<0.001), and divorced or separated on economic grounds (p<0.001) showed significantly high QOL in single mothers. Age (r=0.208, p=0.004) showed significant positive correlation with QOL ; stress (r=-0.254, p<0.001), depressive symptoms (r=-0.314, p<0.001), suicidal ideation (r=-0.217, p<0.001), and alcohol-related problems (r=-0.363, p<0.001) showed significant negative correlation with QOL. In multiple regression analysis, alcohol-related problems, financial cause of single motherhood, depressive symptoms, and income explained 37.7% of variance in total QOL.

    Conclusion

    Interventions to promote QOL of single mothers should reduce the social burden and psychological problems on single mothers. Specifically, interventions providing psychological support should target new single mothers in order to reduce distress in single-mother families.

    Keywords
    Quality of life; Single-parent family; Mothers; Socioeconomic factors; Depression; Alcoholism

    Tables

    Table 1
    Sociodemographic characteristics of participants (n=195)

    Table 2
    Self-rating scale scores of participants

    Table 3
    Correlations analysis among sociodemographic, psychological variables and QOL in single mothers

    Table 4
    Associations of quality of life with variables by stepwise regression analysis

    Table 5
    Associations of domains in QOL with variables by multiple linear regression analysis

    Notes

    Conflicts of Interest:The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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    MeSH Terms
    Alcoholism
    Depression
    Divorce
    Epidemiologic Studies
    Humans
    Korea
    Mothers*
    Psychology*
    Quality of Life*
    Single-Parent Family
    Socioeconomic Factors
    Suicidal Ideation
    Weights and Measures
    World Health Organization
    Metrics
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    Tables
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