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The UK combines one of the highest rates of lone parenthood with one of the lowest rates of maternal employment in the OECD. In this chapter we look at how becoming a lone mother influences women’s economic position using 18 waves of data from the British Household Panel Survey. First, we look at how women’s economic situation is influenced by the transition to first-time motherhood, and second, at the influence of lone motherhood on these outcomes. The outcomes considered are women’s labour market position and household income. We also look at how these demographic transitions influence different income sources. The results suggest that while becoming a first-time mother has a strong influence on employment, with rates of employment and working hours falling substantially upon becoming a mother, lone motherhood has little additional influence. Looking at income, although motherhood leads to a fall in women’s own earnings, within couples these changes are compensated for over time by increases in partners’ earnings and higher child related benefits. For those who become lone mothers, losses in own income combined with the absence of a partner’s income compensating for this loss leads to substantial and sustained falls in income over time.

Drawing on interview data collected as part of a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study with single mothers in receipt of income support, this chapter focuses on these mothers’ experiences of entering employment or study, and balancing these new commitments with their existing caring commitments. In the context of an international trend towards increasingly stringent activation requirements targeted at single parents (Haux, Soc Policy Soc 11(01):1–14, 2012; Haux, J Int Comp Soc Policy 29(2):122–133, 2013; Knijn et al., Soc Policy Adm 41(6):638–652, 2007) it is crucial to understand what helps single mothers gain and maintain employment. This chapter argues that informal carers, in the context of a mixed childcare package (concurrent use of formal and informal childcare), play an important role in facilitating single mothers’ entry into employment and employment sustainability over time. By using a lifecourse perspective, and drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study, this chapter reveals the degree to which the childcare needs of single mothers and their children are dynamic, something that has been largely overlooked in the existing literature. Furthermore, this chapter underscores how the inflexibility of formal childcare makes it hard for single mothers to enter employment/study and sustain it over time.

In Belgium, lone parent families represent almost one fourth of the households with children, aside from the existence of regional differences in the phenomenon’s prevalence. Zooming in on Flanders, the poverty risk for this type of family is significantly higher compared to couple-with-children households and the general population; thus, labour market participation represents a crucial resource for individuals heading such households to cope with the economic needs of the family and to avoid long-lasting poverty or to rely extensively on social assistance. We use data from the Crossroads Bank of Social Security (CBSS Datawarehouse) to study Flemish lone mothers’ patterns of labour market participation and test the association between employment trajectories after lone parenthood and both individual and household characteristics. Flanders represents an interesting case because of (i) the relatively high diffusion of lone motherhood, (ii) the presence of welfare measures supporting a number of different types of recipients (even to different extents and not necessarily so generous to keep them out of poverty), and (iii) the availability of longitudinal data to observe lone mothers’ employment trajectories over time. We find that differences exist among lone mothers, who thus experience different risk of social exclusion driven by family and labour market arrangements set up to resolve the potentially contradictory trade-off between the needs for care and for income. The age at which mothers have children is crucial in understanding their future exclusion from the labour market: selection into early lone motherhood is associated with lower employment opportunities. Furthermore, it is the number of children below 17 in the household rather than the presence of very small children that defines a lower probability of having a strong labour market attachment through full-time jobs, and that increases the likelihood of being unemployed/inactive and receiving welfare benefits.

Prior research has documented an association between lone motherhood and depression using traditional analysis tools. Such an association, however, is insufficient for establishing a causal effect. There are many possible non-causal confounds of this association, including a shared genetic background, or a shared influence by the same socioeconomic factors. We introduce a useful approach for studying behavioural data, and one that has never been used in the study of lone motherhood: twin research. Twin research is useful for the investigation of non-experimental associations because it allows observed associations to be decomposed into between-pair (lone motherhood associated with depression across pairs) and within-pair (the member of discordant pairs who is a lone mother is also more depressed). We then use this method to examine whether the relation between lone parenthood and depression is causal, or the result of genetic and shared environmental confounds. The study uses the Swedish Twin Registry, the largest twin dataset in the world. Our results show that even when controlling for genetic and shared-environmental confounds, there is still a significant association between lone motherhood and depression. Finally, we present conclusions and recommendations based on our results in the context of existing public policies.

A large body of literature has documented a correlation between non-traditional family structure and poorer child outcomes, yet researchers continue to disagree as to whether the association represents a true causal effect. The life course perspective allows us to disentangle the mechanisms by which family structure matters. By employing propensity score matching and using data from the child cohort study, this chapter documents the selective nature of lone-parenthood in Ireland. Growing up in a one-parent family has modest negative effects on children’s educational outcomes but the effects are smaller in relation to health outcomes and psychological wellbeing. Selection effects however account for a non-trivial proportion of the differences in child outcomes across family types. Marriage, it appears, is not the solution to child disadvantage. Instead, the results point to the important role of the mother’s socio-economic resources.

International research has shown that lone mothers are a socially and economically disadvantaged group. They are frequently at a higher risk of poverty and unemployment. Interdisciplinary research suggests that lone mothers have higher rates of physical and psychiatric illness than mothers with partners. The aim of this paper is to focus on the health satisfaction and well-being of lone mothers during their life span. The analysis is conducted using a large dataset from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP). The sample consists of women in lone motherhood at some time during the panel period between 1984 and 2011 (N = 2006). SOEP provides health satisfaction and well-being measures for the whole survey period. Longitudinal fixed-effects (FE) linear regression models are used to identify changes in lone mothers’ health during the transition into lone motherhood. The results show that, besides separation, the transition into lone motherhood and the lone mother episode have significant negative effects on the health satisfaction and well-being of lone mothers. Other factors, such as the duration of lone mother episode, being in a relationship (without living in the same household with the partner) or the number of underage children have opposite effects on health satisfaction and well-being. The results demonstrate that socioeconomic circumstances such as income change and employment status may affect lone mothers’ well-being during the transition into lone-motherhood.