Don’t blame the kids: mothers’ satisfaction with different life domains after union dissolution

Abstract

Single, separated mothers report lower levels of psychological well-being than partnered mothers. This study examines whether this penalty in well-being results from the burdens of single parenting or from the stress and strain of union dissolution. The data come from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Our sample consists of 1919 childless women and mothers who reported a union dissolution. We used fixed effects models to examine changes in financial satisfaction, family satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction after union dissolution. Our results show that mothers experience steeper declines in financial satisfaction after union dissolution but lower declines in family satisfaction than childless women. Mothers and childless women report almost similar post-separation declines in overall life satisfaction. The results contradict the common notion that low life satisfaction among single mothers can be attributed primarily to the negative consequences of single parenting. The findings suggest that large parts of the life satisfaction penalty experienced by separated single mothers arise from union dissolution rather than from single parenting.