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

Ga Eun Kim; Hee-Yeon Choi; Eui-Jung Kim

doi:10.4306/jknpa.2016.55.2.114

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

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 2016; 55(2): 114-121.

Published online: 31 May 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2016.55.2.114

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, 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, christie@ewha.ac.kr

Received 15 February 2016 Revised 21 March 2016 Accepted 24 April 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

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Sociodemographic characteristics of participants (n=195)

^* : p<0.05. SD : Standard deviation, QOL : Quality of life

Table 2

Self-rating scale scores of participants

SD : Standard deviation, GARS : Global Assessment of Recent Stress, CES-D : Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression, SSI-Beck : Scale for Suicide Ideation, AUDIT-K : The Korean version of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test

Table 3

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

^* : p<0.05, ^† : p<0.01. QOL : Quality of life, WHOQOL-BREF : Korean version of World Health Organization QOL-Abbreviated form

Table 4

Associations of quality of life with variables by stepwise regression analysis

SE : Standard error

Table 5

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

QOL : Quality of life, SE : Standard error

Notes

^{Conflicts of Interest} The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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