Tamkeen Ashraf Malik, Nasira Irshad.
Parental depression, stress, anxiety and childhood behavior problems among single parent families.
J Pak Psych Soc Jan ;9(1):10-4.

Objective: To explore the relationship of single parenting with depression, stress and anxiety among parents, and also whether it contributes to behavior problems among children of these families. Design: Between subjects study design. Place and duration of the study: This study was conducted at department of Behavioral sciences Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from February 2011 to July 2011. Subjects and Methods: The sample consisted of 63 parents of school children including 33 single parents and 30 from two-parent families as comparison group. Instruments included demographic information form, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS), and Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for childhood behavior problems. t-test assessed for difference between mean scores. Pearson correlation was used to see the relationship between DASS scores and SDQ. Results: Single parents had higher mean scores on subscales of Depression, Anxiety and Stress from comparison group. The statistically significant difference was observed for childhood behavior problems among both groups as assessed by SDQ. The Pearson correlation coefficient between scores of SDQ and DASS is also not significant. Conclusion: Single parenting might be related to higher degrees of stress, depression and anxiety among parents, and can contribute to the childhood behavior problems in present sample.

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