The economic status of parents with serious mental illness in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Parents with serious mental illness may be vulnerable to financial insecurity, making successful parenting especially difficult. We explored relationships among parenting, serious mental illness, and economic status in a nationally representative sample.

Method

The sample included all working-age participants from the 2009 and 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 77,326). Two well-established scales of mental health distinguished participants with none, mild, moderate, and serious mental illness. We compared economic status by parenthood status and mental illness severity.

Results

Rates of employment were low for parents with serious mental illness (38% full time and 17% part time among mothers; 60% full time and 9% part time among fathers) compa

SUBMITTER: Luciano A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4152556 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature