The mental health of mothers in the United States has steeply declined over much of the last decade, new research shows.
Mothers reporting to have "excellent" mental health dipped significantly from 2016 to 2023, with more mothers reporting only "fair" or "poor" mental health — especially single mothers and mothers with children who were uninsured or on Medicaid, the study found. Mothers also consistently reported worse mental health statuses than fathers.
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"Maternal mood disorders, in particular, can have long-term effects on children, directly by affecting development, and indirectly, by increasing the chance of exposure to co-occurring risks such as parental substance use and lower household resources," Jamie Daw, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia Mailman School, said in a press release.
Children of mothers with mood disorders have higher risks for adverse birth outcomes, developmental delays and mental health issues, the researchers wrote.
The study comes a year after former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory to draw attention to the unique stressors on parents and to recognize the mental health of caregivers as a public health issue.
The study analyzed data from nearly 200,000 mothers who participated in a nationally-representative survey of households with children under 18. The number of mothers reporting "excellent" mental health dropped from 38% in 2016 to 26% in 2023. Mothers who said their mental health was "fair/poor" jumped from 5.5% to 8.5% over that time period. This was particularly true for mothers who were single, younger and less educated, according to the study.
Mothers reporting "excellent" physical health also declined from 28% in 2016 to 24% in 2023. Fathers also reported drops in physical health from 30% to 26.4%. But the declines in mental health status were steeper for mothers than fathers, with 1 in 12 mothers reporting "fair" or "poor" mental health in 2023 compared to 1 in 22 fathers.
"Our results highlight the rising tide of worsening mental health among parenting women as a key target for efforts to improve maternal and child health in the U.S.," Daw said. "We found consistently worse health outcomes for mothers compared to fathers, suggesting that mothers may need additional consideration and attention in policies aimed at supporting parental health and especially mental health."
The majority of mothers in the study were over 30. More than half of the mothers had a white child or a child with private insurance.