Depression and Quality of Life for Women in Single-parent and Nuclear Families

Abstract

This is a cross-sectional study which objectives are 1) to determine the predictors for perceived quality of life and 2) to analyze the differences between women from single-parent families and bi-parent families, about their quality of life, depression and familiar income. We worked with a non-probabilistic sample of 140 women from Monterrey, N.L, Mexico, 107 are from bi-parent families and 33 from single parent families. Some of the results show that women from single-parent families have lower quality of life (Z = −2.224, p = .026), lower income (Z = −2.727, p = .006) and greater depression (Z = −6.143, p = .001) than women from bi-parental families. The perceived quality of life's predictors, using a multiple regression model (n = 140) were depression, income and number of children, those variables explaining 25.4% of variance.