Re-Partnering and Single Mothers’ Health and Life Satisfaction Trajectories

Philipp Dierker , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)
Mine Kühn , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Despite a great amount of research on family and health, the impact of single mothers’ re-partnering transitions and their health and life satisfaction has been largely disregarded. Thus, it remains unclear whether health and life satisfaction increase due to additional resources the new partner provides, or whether the new family constellation causes additional stressors resulting in decreasing health and life satisfaction. The few studies that have been examined lack longitudinal data and thus causally robust results. This problem can be addressed by considering health and life satisfaction trajectories across the entire re-partnering transition. In our work, we rely on longitudinal data to trace an overall picture of the re-partnering transition of single mothers. Specifically, we apply fixed effects models based on data of the German Socio-economic panel to assess effects on trajectories of life satisfaction, self-rated health, and SF-12 scores of mental and physical health during the whole transition period. Our preliminary findings show a positive effect of re-partnering on life satisfaction, while less evidence is suggested across all health measures. While mental health also shows a slightly positive trend in the course of re-partnering, self-rated health and physical health indicate a pattern of decreasing health. Thus, no consistent impact of re-partnering on different dimensions of health and life satisfaction among single mothers is evident. In our next analytical step, we seek to explore potential confounders as well as the mediating effect of the socio-economic characteristics of the new partner and institutional conditions and constraints.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe