Jablonska Beata, Lindberg Lene
Stockholms Centre for Public Health, Stockholm County Council, Box 17533, 118 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2007 Aug;42(8):656-63. doi: 10.1007/s00127-007-0210-3. Epub 2007 May 23.
Previous studies have shown an elevated risk with regard to social and behavioural domains in adolescents of single parents. However, the diversity of single parent families concerning gender of the resident parent has seldom been taken into account when investigating the relation between family structure and children's negative outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate risk behaviours, victimisation and mental distress among adolescents in different family structures using more detailed sub-groups of single parents (i.e., single mother, single father and shared physical custody).
The sample consisted of 15,428 ninth graders from all municipal and private schools in the county of Stockholm (response rate 83.4%). Risk behaviours included use of alcohol, illicit drugs and smoking. Victimisation was measured by experiences of exposure to bullying and physical violence. Mental distress was assessed with the anxious/depressed and aggressive behaviour syndrome scales in the Youth Self Report (YSR). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the associations between family structure and outcome variables.
Adolescents in single-mother/father families were at higher risk of risk behaviours, victimisation and mental distress than their counterparts in two-parent families. However, after control for possible confounders the associations between victimisation, aggressive behaviour problems and single motherhood were no longer significant, whereas these relations remained for children living with single fathers. Adolescents in shared physical custody run no increased risk of any of the studied outcomes (except drunkenness) after adjustment for covariates. Post hoc analyses revealed that adolescents in single-father families were at higher risk for use of alcohol, illicit drugs, drunkenness, and aggressive behaviour as compared to their peers in single-mother families, whereas no differences were found between adolescents in single-mother families and those in shared physical custody.
Children of single parents should not be treated as a homogenous group when planning prevention and intervention programmes. Researchers and professionals should be aware of and consider the specific problems of single parent children and that their problems may vary depending on their living arrangements.
先前的研究表明，单亲家庭青少年在社会和行为领域面临的风险有所增加。然而，在调查家庭结构与儿童负面结果之间的关系时，很少考虑单亲家庭在常住家长性别方面的多样性。因此，本研究的目的是使用更详细的单亲亚组（即单身母亲、单身父亲和共同实际监护）来调查不同家庭结构中青少年的危险行为、受侵害情况和心理困扰。
样本包括来自斯德哥尔摩县所有公立和私立学校的15428名九年级学生（回复率83.4%）。危险行为包括饮酒、使用非法药物和吸烟。受侵害情况通过遭受欺凌和身体暴力的经历来衡量。心理困扰通过青少年自我报告（YSR）中的焦虑/抑郁和攻击行为综合征量表进行评估。采用双变量和多变量逻辑回归分析来研究家庭结构与结果变量之间的关联。
单亲母亲/父亲家庭中的青少年比双亲家庭中的青少年面临更高的危险行为、受侵害情况和心理困扰风险。然而，在控制了可能的混杂因素后，受侵害情况与单身母亲家庭中攻击行为问题之间的关联不再显著，而与单身父亲生活的儿童之间的这些关系仍然存在。在调整协变量后，共同实际监护的青少年在任何研究结果（除醉酒外）方面的风险均未增加。事后分析显示，与单身母亲家庭中的同龄人相比，单身父亲家庭中的青少年饮酒、使用非法药物、醉酒和攻击行为的风险更高，而单身母亲家庭中的青少年与共同实际监护家庭中的青少年之间没有差异。
在规划预防和干预项目时，不应将单亲家庭的孩子视为一个同质群体。研究人员和专业人员应意识到并考虑单亲家庭孩子的具体问题，并且他们的问题可能因生活安排而异。
