June
07

Online Seminar Talk

Single Mothers’ Trajectories of Antidepressant Medication Purchases

Mine Kühn
Online Seminar Talk, June 07, 2022

Mine Kühn from the Laboratory of Population Health at MPIDR gives an Online Seminar Talk.

Abstract

Single motherhood is known to be distressing, and to be associated with poor mental health. However, less is known about the pathways into and out of single motherhood, and about the mental health trajectories of single mothers. We used total population registry data on Finnish women who experienced the life events of separation, widowhood, or childbirth during the 1995-2018 period while between the ages of 15 to 64. Single mothers were compared with women who experienced the same life event, but without becoming a single mother. The results for women who separated showed that among single mothers, there was a substantial increase in antidepressant use at the time of separation, and only a moderate decline after separation. Among women who experienced widowhood, those who had underage children initially had lower antidepressant use than women without children, but this gap narrowed in the post-widowhood period. In addition, single women experienced more unfavorable mental health trajectories than partnered women around the time they gave birth. Re-partnering was associated with improved mental health among all groups of single mothers.

Register to Take Part

You would like to attend the Online Seminar Talk? You are very welcome. Please register by writing an e-mail to office-myrskyla@demogr.mpg.de.

Online Seminar Talk, June, 7th from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Rostock time)

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.