Socioeconomic status, social support and self-rated health among lone mothers in South Korea

Abstract

This study examined the association of socioeconomic status and social support with the differences in self-rated health between lone and partnered mothers in South Korea. Data came from women living with their children in the baseline survey of Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Family (N = 6,370) that yielded a very high response rate (95.8%). Compared to partnered mothers, lone mothers had a significantly higher risk of poor/fair health after adjusting for mediating factors (living natural parent, emotional support from siblings, social activities, educational attainment, equivalized household income, and subjective economic status). When all factors were individually included in the base model, each factor contributed to this difference. Subjective economic status explained 28.0% of the excess risk of poor/fair health among women in the lone compared to the partnered status. All factors combined accounted for 41.4% of the excess risk among lone mothers. The findings clearly indicate that lone mothers have poorer self-rated health than partnered mothers do, but this detrimental effect cannot be entirely explained by the socioeconomic and social support-mediating factors.