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.