The Relationship Between Single-Parent Status and Parenting Capacities in Mothers of Youth with Chronic Health Conditions: The Mediating Role of Income

OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively examine the relationship of single-parent status to parenting capacity variables in mothers of youth with a chronic health condition. METHODS: Parental overprotection, perceived vulnerability, and parenting stress were assessed in 383 mothers (308 married and 75 single parents) of youth with one of six chronic health conditions (i.e., type 1 diabetes, asthma, cancer, cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, or sickle cell disease). RESULTS: Single mothers evidenced higher levels of both perceived vulnerability and parenting stress, but not overprotection, than married parents. These differences disappeared in the presence of income as a predictor. CONCLUSIONS: Single parents appear to evidence differences in parenting capacity; however, low income appears to account in large part for the higher level of risk associated with single-parent status.