Parenting Stress of Single Mothers in Times of Crisis in Germany

Abstract

Objective: Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic have an impact on the daily lives of families with children, which increases the perceived stress on top of everything else. Studies suggest that single mothers may have been especially vulnerable to stress during this pandemic, which leads this quantitative study to examine how the stress experience of single mothers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic differs from before COVID-19. Methods: Mann–Whitney U tests were performed on matched data from n = 104 single mothers before and n = 104 single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Results: Findings indicate that the stress experience of single mothers in Germany differs significantly from the stress experience before the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: Therefore, further research should identify resources and stressors for single mothers’ stress experience as well as interventions and support for single mothers. These interventions and support may also be helpful in coping with crises in general.

Keywords

Parental stress single mother COVID-19 pandemic quantitative propensity score matching

The COVID-19 pandemic was a global crisis that changed the lives of many people around the world. For example, although isolation was a necessary measure to protect public health, it also resulted in negative changes to physical activity and eating habits (Ammar et al., 2020). Furthermore, the pandemic has been associated with high levels of psychological stress (Xiong et al., 2020), which can significantly impact individuals’ well-being. Job loss or reduced working hours due to the pandemic could also lead to financial worries (Bujard et al., 2021). Conversely, the pandemic could lead to excessive workloads, particularly among those employed in systemically important professions (Diabaté & Bujard, 2020).

In recent years, Germany has experienced recurring lockdowns, contact restrictions, and successive COVID-19 waves associated with emerging virus variants (Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, 2022), which have substantially affected families with children and, consequently, parents (e.g., Bujard et al., 2021). Experience from past epidemics already shows that they lead to increased stress levels in the population (Pan American Health Organization, 2009). Accordingly, the current COVID-19 pandemic has also placed a new emphasis on families’ experience of stress (Petras et al., 2021). A review of existing literature at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that high stress has been a common response to the pandemic (Rajkumar, 2020). Parents in particular experience more stress than individuals without children (American Psychological Association, 2020; Bujard et al., 2021; Hertz et al., 2021; Jessen et al., 2021; Petras et al., 2021; Seguin et al., 2021; Spinelli et al., 2020). In turn, parents with a child with a disability experience more parenting stress than parents with a child without a disability (e.g., Dervishaliaj, 2013). Overall, Brown et al. (2020) emphasize that COVID-19 containment interventions may negatively impact parents’ perceived stress as well as children's parenting.

Stress is always perceived individually and differently since different resources are available to each person (e.g., Rusch, 2019). According to the well-established transactional stress model of Lazarus and Folkman (1984), a potentially stressful situation only leads to the experience of stress if it is perceived as threatening and coping resources are considered insufficient. In Abidin's (1990) Parenting Stress Model, parenting stress is considered a specific form of stress. In this context, parental stress is considered a risk factor for dysfunctional parenting behavior (Tröster, 2011). According to this model, dysfunctional parenting behavior mediates the relationship between parenting stress and the negative consequences for the child (de Maat et al., 2021).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have experienced multiple demands, such as fulfilling the dual role of being both caregiver and educator, in addition to assuming the role of teacher during homeschooling (e.g., Petras et al., 2021; Pozas et al., 2021). In addition, there has been the stress factor of parents, for example during quarantine, having to balance their personal lives, jobs, or dealing with current unemployment and raising children without other resources, such as social support (Pozas et al., 2021; Seguin et al., 2021; Spinelli et al., 2020, 2021). Related to this, the study by Oppermann et al. (2021) shows that both self-efficacy and perceived social support protect against parental stress during lockdown. Overall, dealing with quarantine, lockdown, and related closures has been a particularly stressful experience for parents (Spinelli et al., 2020, 2021). In addition, other characteristics have influenced parents’ stress experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the age of the youngest child and the number of children, with a larger number of children being associated with more parental stress (Jianghong et al., 2021). Also, working mothers have been likely to exhibit higher levels of stress than mothers who are not working (Rajgariaha et al., 2021). In addition, there is a correlation between mothers’ perceived stress and parental self-efficacy (Gniewosz, 2022). Overall, the results show that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been heterogeneous and that the stresses of the pandemic may have been amplified, especially among known at-risk groups (Calvano et al., 2021). In this regard, one at-risk group represents single parents (Hövermann, 2021), who may have been especially vulnerable to stress during this pandemic (Taylor et al., 2022).

Stress of Single Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In recent decades, there has been a considerable increase in single-parent families in Germany (Rattay et al., 2017). In December 2021, approximately one in five families with children was a single-parent family and 82.3% of them are single mothers (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2022a). During the COVID-19 pandemic, single parents have been in a more difficult position due to several factors, such as dual roles and stress, than parents in couple relationships (e.g., Bujard et al., 2021). On the one hand, social support, which is particularly important for single parents due to COVID-19 pandemic containment measures, has been limited (Hertz et al., 2021; Jianghong et al., 2021). In this context, low levels of social support are associated with increased parental stress (Schellinger et al., 2020). On the other hand, single parents also lack internal support of a partner, leaving them solely responsible for parenting, household chores, and income, for example, and presenting them with major challenges (Pozas et al., 2021; Rattay et al., 2017). Single parents who first separated or divorced during the COVID-19 pandemic have experienced particular stresses (Goldberg et al., 2021). In summary, survey results from Hertz et al. (2021) show that single parents have been more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than parents in couple relationships. Data from the Böckler Employee Survey show that single mothers have been particularly likely to be stressed by the overall situation (Bujard et al., 2020). Stress for single mothers often results from low social support, a critical economic situation, and the increased demands of raising and caring for the child alone (Dor, 2021).

The study by Sartor et al. (2022) examined the association of various risk factors with single mothers’ stress before the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Parental stress was assessed using Tröster's (2011) Parenting Stress Inventory (“Eltern-Belastungs-Inventar”; EBI), which is based on the Parenting Stress Index by Abidin (1995). The EBI differentiates parental stress into the parent and the child domain (Tröster, 2011). Due to the accumulation of multiple stressors, single mothers appear to be highly stressed in the EBI child domain, but not significantly stressed in the EBI parent domain (Sartor et al., 2022). The child domain is the stress domain that results from the child's characteristics and behaviors (Tröster, 2011). The main stressor, that Sartor et al. (2022) identified is the risk factor of at least one child having an impairment. Low self-efficacy beliefs as well as low perceived social support show up as stressors in the child and parent domains. However, Sartor et al. (2022) also highlight that these stressors can serve as resources when they are strong. This can be reinforced by Oppermann et al.’s (2021) study, which shows that self-efficacy and perceived social support have been protective against parental stress during lockdown. In addition, new stresses may have been added by the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation efforts (Sartor et al., 2022).

Overall, there are only a few studies that examine the stress experience of single mothers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Often, single mothers were only marginally considered, although they represent an important risk group (e.g., Hövermann, 2021). Moreover, a comparison to stress experience prior to the COVID-19 pandemic has been predominantly studied only with mothers in partnership and retrospectively (e.g., Adams et al., 2021; Calvano et al., 2021). In addition, little research has examined the stress experience of single parents during later COVID-19 high phases although it is suspected that stress may have continued to increase with longer duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and further lockdowns (Gruber et al., 2021). This raises questions about how the stress experienced by single mothers differs during the later COVID-19 high phase compared to the pre-pandemic period. This study examines the extent to which single mothers’ stress experience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (during the later COVID-19 peak period) differs from that before the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.

Method

Sample

The sample is composed of the data set on the stress experience of single mothers in Germany collected before the COVID-19 pandemic (S1) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (S2). Power analysis for the Mann–Whitney U test for independent samples was calculated using GPower and resulted in a sample size of 92 subjects per group (N = 184). Both data sets were collected independently of each other. The sample (N = 953) consists of the single mothers before the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 849) and single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 104). In order to obtain comparable samples from both studies with respect to age, educational attainment, job situation, partnership status, time of single parenting, number of children, age of the youngest child, at least one child with disabilities, relationship to and frequency of contact with the child´s father, child care support, social support, self-efficacy, and coping behavior we applied propensity score matching (for details, see chapter 3.4). Social support was assessed using the short form of the Social Support Questionnaire (F-SozU; Fydrich et al., 2007), self-efficacy using the “sense of parenting self-efficacy” subscale of the Parenting Sense of Competence Questionnaire (FKE; Miller, 2001), and coping behavior using the German version of the Brief COPE (Knoll, 2002). In addition, parenting stress was assessed using the Parenting Stress Inventory (“Eltern-Belastungs-Inventar”; EBI; Tröster, 2011). After the matching, both data sets consist of n = 104 single mothers. Single mothers are defined as mothers who live with at least one minor child, i.e., under 18 years of age, and without a spouse or partner in a household (e.g., Schmidhuber, 2022; Statistisches Bundesamt, 2022b). The single mothers before the COVID-19 pandemic were between 25 and 60 years old (M = 39.45, SD = 6.42) and had on average one to two children (M = 1.64, SD = 0.77), with the youngest child being on average 6.4 years old (SD = 4.1). Furthermore, 24.0% of single mothers before the COVID-19 pandemic had at least one child with a disability and have been single mothers for an average of 5.27 years (SD = 4.2). The age of single mothers surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 104) ranged from 24 years to 57 years old (M = 40.14, SD = 6.62). On average, they had one to two children (M = 1.60, SD = 0.77). The youngest child was 6.77 years old on average (SD = 3.71). During the COVID-19 pandemic, 26.9% of single mothers had at least one child with an impairment and have been single mothers for a mean of 5.66 years (SD = 4.57). Additional sociodemographic data on educational attainment, job situation, mothers’ partnership status, relationship and frequency of contact with the child's father, and child care support is shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Sociodemographic Data Separated by Subsamples.

Sociodemographic data	Characteristics	Before COVID-19 pandemic (n = 104)^a		During COVID-19 pandemic (n = 104)
Sociodemographic data	Characteristics	n	%	n	%
Educational attainment	No qualification	0	0	1	1.0
	General secondary school	5	4.8	1	1.0
	Intermediate secondary school	20	19.2	23	22.1
	High school	29	27.9	32	30.8
	University degree	48	46.2	47	45.2
	Other	2	1.9	0	0
Job situation	Non-working	20	19.2	17	16.8
	working	84	80.8	84	83.2
	- Part time	61	58.7	60	59.4
	- Full time	23	22.1	24	23.8
Partnership status	New partnership, but not living in household	12	11.5	12	11.5
Partnership status	No new partnership	92	88.5	92	88.5
Relationship to the child´s father	Very good	6	5.9	6	5.8
	Rather good	26	25.5	29	27.9
	Rather bad	29	28.4	31	29.8
	Very bad	41	40.2	38	36.5
Frequency of contact with the child´s father	No contact at all	31	30.4	33	31.7
	Rare contact	30	29.4	25	24.0
	Occasional contact	23	22.6	25	24.0
	Frequent contact	18	17.7	21	20.2
Child care support^b	Family	64	61.5	55	52.9
	Friends	37	35.6	27	26.0
	No support	26	25.0	28	26.9

Note. Due to missing data, the percentages are based on different case numbers.

After matching with the data during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Multiple answers were possible.

Implementation of the Study

Data before the COVID-19 pandemic were obtained from the study by Sartor et al. (2022) from the same organization and were provided for the present study. The data collection was carried out over a period of 6 weeks from December 2017 to January 2018 in Germany. The data during the COVID-19 pandemic was carried out over 11 weeks from December 2021 to February 2022 during the fifth COVID-19 high phase in Germany, when stricter measures were officially reintroduced, and everyday life was restricted to prevent spread (Hanika, 2021). Participants before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were informed prior to their participation that the data would be collected anonymously and used for research purposes only. The data collection was carried out using an online questionnaire, which recorded the stress and resources of single mothers in addition to socio-demographic data. Recruitment took place via groups on social networks whose members were exclusively single parents and via locations of an association for single parents in Germany. The study was reviewed by an official ethics committee and found to be ethically acceptable (ethics committee, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, TU Dortmund University; GEKTUDO-2021-25b).

Survey Instruments

In this study, the Parenting Stress Inventory (“Eltern-Belastungs-Inventar”; EBI; Tröster, 2011) was used, which is based on Abidin's Parenting Stress Model (1990, 1995). The EBI has already been proven in many studies to be a multidimensional screening instrument for recording parental stress (e.g., Dillmann et al., 2022; Sartor et al., 2022). It consists of 48 items, which are answered using a five-level Likert scale from “does not apply at all” to “applies exactly.” These 48 items are assigned to 12 subscales, each containing four items. Furthermore, the subscales are assigned to either the parent domain or the child domain (see Table 2). The EBI parent domain measures limitations in parental functional domains. This domain includes seven subscales, for example, the lack of integration of parents into a social network (subscale: Social isolation) or parents’ doubts about their competencies to cope with the tasks of raising and caring for the child (subscale: Parental competence). The five subscales of the child domain target stress that emanates from dispositions of the child's behavior. This domain records, for example, the stress by the parents due to their child (subscale: Demandingness) or the permanent impairment of the child's emotional state (subscale: Mood). The items of the subscale Spouse did not fit the needs of single mothers, so this subscale was excluded from our study. The overall EBI value (S1: ω_t = .93, S2: ω_t = .94), the parent domain (S1: ω_t = .90, S2: ω_t = .91) and the child domain (S1: ω_t = .90, S2: ω_t = .92) showed a high reliability of McDonald's Omega for the sample before (S1) and during the pandemic (S2).

Table 2.

Internal Consistency of the Subscales of the EBI and Sample Items (Tröster, 2011).

(Sub-)scale	Example item	McDonald's Omega (ω _t )
(Sub-)scale	Example item	S1	S2
Parent domain		.90	.91
Parental attachment	It is sometimes difficult for me to empathize with my child.	.79	.79
Social Isolation	Since I became a mother/father, it is more difficult for me to make new contacts.	.71	.69
Parental competence	Ím sometimes not sure whether I am really up to the demands as a mother/father.	.85	.82
Depression	It depresses me to think about all the things you can do wrong in parenting.	.83	.75
Health	Since having my child, Íve been sick more often.	.82	.76
Role restriction	I feel like I have to do without a lot as a mother/father.	.81	.87
Spouse ^a	Because of the child, some problems arose in my partnership.
Child domain		.90	.92
Hyperactivity/distractibility	My child I soften unfocused and easily distracted.	.79	.76
Mood	My child I soften moody and easily excitable.	.82	.86
Acceptability	My child is doing some things that bother me.	.56	.56
Demandingness	I sometimes feel that my child is taking up all my time.	.72	.82
Adaptability	When my child can't have something, it's often hard to calm him down.	.78	.85
EBI		.93	.94

Note. Overview of the overall EBI and the child and parent domain subscales of the EBI (Tröster, 2011), as well as a sample item and internal consistency (McDonald's Omega [ω_t]) for each scale. The sample exists of single mothers before (S1; n = 104) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (S2; n = 104).

The items of the subscale Spouse did not fit the needs of single mothers, so this subscale was excluded in our study.

Data Analyses and Missing Values

Propensity score matching (Pan & Bai, 2015) was used for the analysis of the hypothesis. Based on the idea of causal inference (Holland, 1986; Rubin, 1974), propensity score matching aims to minimize the selection bias between treatment and control group on observed background variables (Bai & Clark, 2018). Propensity score matching follows Lee and Little's (2017) first five steps (see Appendix A in Electronic Supplementary Material for more information). By comparing different matching algorithms (Nearest Neighbor, Caliper and Radius, Optimal, and Full Matching), fairly consistent results are found for the 1-Nearest Neighbor (NN) matching decision (without replacement) and the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). This is because, on the one hand, the theoretical assumptions are met, and on the other, the results have shown the best balancing properties of control variables (e.g., Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2008). In addition, the treatment effects of ATT are estimated using bootstrapping (500 replicates).

Both of the samples contained missing values. The amount of missing data in both data sets does not exceed the rate of 15%, according to Cheema (2014) and Young et al. (2011), for the most part (see Appendix B in Electronic Supplementary Material for more information). Therefore, 100 imputations were used to replace missing values separately in the two samples (van Buuren & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, 2011).

The software R (R Core Team, 2021) was used for the analysis. The package “mice” was used to replace missing values (van Buuren & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, 2011), and the package “MatchIt” for analyzing propensity score matching (Ho et al., 2011). Furthermore, the packages “lmtest” (Zeileis & Hothorn, 2002) and “boot” (Canty & Ripley, 2021) were used for bootstrapping, and the package “ggplot2” (Wickham, 2016) for the visualization of data. The package “margins” estimating average marginal effects (AME; Mood, 2010) was used for estimating logistic regression (Leeper, 2021).

Internal consistencies were checked in advance using McDonald's Omega (ω_t) by package “jmv” (Selker et al., 2022; see chapter Survey instruments). This was done depending on the samples before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze the research question with difference hypotheses, parametric procedures, such as the t-test for independent samples, can be used if the data is normally distributed (e.g., Kim & Park, 2019). The normal distribution was tested using the Shapiro–Wilk test. If the assumption of normal distribution is rejected, non-parametric procedures, such as the Mann–Whitney U test for independent samples, should be used (e.g., Nahm, 2016). Although there is no separate effect size for the Mann–Whitney U test, the Pearson correlation coefficient r can be used as effect size. It is calculated according to the formula of Fritz et al. (2012). For interpretation, the standard values according to Cohen (1992) were used. A correlation coefficient of r = .10 indicates a small effect, of r = .30 a moderate effect, and of r = .50 a strong effect (Cohen, 1992).

Results

Preliminary Analysis

Detailed information on the first three steps for propensity score matching, based on Lee and Little's (2017), can be found in Appendix A in Electronic Supplementary Material. In the fourth step of propensity score matching, the balance of the propensity scores and the covariates are checked for the before and after matching using the standardized mean differences. Standardized mean differences in the propensity scores reduce from 0.61 (unmatched) to 0.02 (matched; see Appendix C in Electronic Supplementary Material for more information). Moreover, the reductions of the differences in the covariates indicate that groups “before COVID-19” and “during COVID-19” do not differ meaningfully, for example “dysfunctional coping behavior (z-values)” reduce from 61% to 7%, “perceived social support (z-value)” reduce from 31% to 1% and “age (z-value)” reduce from 28% to 9%. All matched variables are below the cut-off criteria of 10% (matched). After the successful verification of the balance, the effect of the time point is estimated by evaluating the ATT to test the hypotheses as the fifth step. Both the analysis on “parent domain (z-value)” and “child domain (z-value)” yields a higher significant effect from before COVID-19 to during COVID-19 (parent domain: ATT = 0.36; 95% CI = [10, .69]; child domain: ATT = 0.52; 95% CI = [21, .77]; see Appendix A in Electronic Supplementary Material for more information).

Results of the Hypotheses

Prior to the analysis, the data was checked for normal distribution. The Shapiro–Wilk test yielded significant results (p < .05) for both the parent and the child domains as well as for the subscales of the EBI indicating that the data was not normally distributed. Thus, the Mann–Whitney U test for independent samples was used as a non-parametric procedure to analyze the research question (e.g., Nahm, 2016). Figure 1 shows the distribution of the mean values and the results of the Mann–Whitney U test for independent samples for the analysis of the research question.

The mean of the stress experience of single mothers before the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 104) is 73.47 (SD = 16.06) in the parent domain, and 48.57 (SD = 13.98) in the child domain. For single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 104), the mean score of stress experience is 78.95 (SD = 16.06) in the parent domain, and 56.19 (SD = 16.18) in the child domain. Single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic achieved a higher mean score than single mothers before the COVID-19 pandemic in both the parent and child domain. The difference in stress experience in the parent domain (U = 4350, z = −2.44, p = .015), and the child domain (U = 3963, z = −3.33, p < .001) are statistically significant. According to Cohen (1992), the effect is small both in the parent domain (r = .17) and in the child domain (r = .23).

Figure 2 shows the stress profile, which allows to compare stress in the different stress subscales both intraindividually and interindividually. This comparison is based on raw values, with higher values indicating higher parental stress (e.g., Tröster, 2011). The stress profile shows the averaged raw values of single mothers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In each subscale, the mean score is higher among single mothers during than before the COVID-19 pandemic (see Appendix D in Electronic Supplementary Material). However, in the parenting domain, only the Depression and Health subscale became statistically significant with effect sizes ranging from r = .17 to r = .20. In the child domain, all subscales became statistically significant with effect sizes ranging from r = .16 to r = .21. Thus, according to Cohen (1992), only small effects were found.

Discussion

We analyzed whether single mothers’ experience of stress has differed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Some studies have already retrospectively found higher stress among single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic (Adams et al., 2021; Calvano et al., 2021). Both hypotheses that single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic rated their stress experience higher than single mothers before the COVID-19 pandemic in the parenting domain and the child domain were confirmed with a significant difference. Thus, on the one hand, this suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, single mothers had fewer resources to cope with childrearing and childcare tasks and are impaired in important areas of parental functioning. On the other hand, single mothers appear to have been exposed to higher demands from their child during the COVID-19 pandemic, which places a particular strain on parental resources to cope with these demands.

According to the stress profile, single mothers have been significantly more stressed during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the COVID-19 pandemic in the stress sources of depression and parenting health. This can be supported by the literature review of Gayatri and Irawaty (2022), which shows that mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, and depression have been consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, depressive symptoms of parents are related to higher perceived stress and the quality of the parent–child relationship (Brown et al., 2020; Russel et al., 2022). Highly stressed parents find it more difficult to fulfill the tasks of raising and caring for their child, which can impair parent–child interaction and endanger child development (Dillmann et al., 2022; Tröster, 2011). According to Russel et al. (2022), this is partly due to the fact that resilience is related to both parents’ stress and children's perceived stress.

In the child domain, single mothers were significantly more stressed during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the COVID-19 pandemic across all sources of stress. According to the parenting stress model, in the stress source of hyperactivity/distractibility, the child exhibits overactive as well as inattentive behaviors and exhibits low impulse control, which place significant demands on the mother's resources due to the need for active management (e.g., Abidin, 1995). Closures and restrictions have severely restricted children's play and social lives, leading to developmental and behavioral problems in some, such as hyperactivity, inattention, and dissocial behavior, and increased demands on parents (Tisborn et al., 2020). This could also be reflected in the stress source mood as well as adaptability. The stress source mood captures the child's negative social state and is associated with the child's dissatisfaction and moodiness, which parents often experience as a provocative behavior, and which makes it difficult to interact with their child. In the stress source of adaptability, the child exhibits a lack of ability to manage developmental transitions and adapt to the environment. In addition, the child exhibits avoidance behaviors, which is a major source of stress for parents (Tröster, 2011). Furthermore, due to the contact restrictions to contain the COVID-19 virus, as well as the lockdowns, quarantine, and closures of childcare facilities, mothers have increasingly experienced their children at home (Bujard et al., 2021). This may also be reflected in the high stress of the source demandingness, which captures the demands on parental care and attention from child behavioral dispositions and characteristics (Tröster, 2011). Because mothers’ resources are significantly strained by the child's behavioral disposition, this can lead to increased levels of parental stress (Taubman-Ben-Ari et al., 2021). In turn, however, increased levels of parental stress are also associated with child behavior problems (Schellinger et al., 2020; Streit & Davis, 2022). Thus, consistent with the parenting stress model, the subscales of stress interact reciprocally with parental stress (e.g., Tröster, 2011). However, since this interaction has not been considered so far, it should be investigated in further studies. Furthermore, parents experience a discrepancy between their expectations and the behavior or characteristics of the child in relation to the source of stress, acceptance, which makes a positive attitude in educational interaction difficult (Tröster, 2011). This can be supported by the study of Gniewosz (2022), which shows a correlation between stress perception and parental self-efficacy. Specifically, during the pandemic, mothers who have rated the current situation as stressful appear to be at risk of perceiving themselves as less effective in their parenting (Gniewosz, 2022). These stresses thus place children at risk for parental neglect, exploitation, or violence during the COVID-19 pandemic (Raman et al., 2020). However, this finding should be interpreted with caution, as the internal consistency of the Acceptability subscale—in line with the study by Sartor et al. (2022)—was very low.

Overall, our study showed a significant difference in the stress experience of single mothers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. During the COVID-19 pandemic, single mothers have rated their stress experience higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic. This is supported by the study by Low and Mounts (2021). The study shows that higher levels of financial stress, as well as frequent quarantines and lockdowns, are associated with higher levels of parenting stress (Low & Mounts, 2021). In addition, dealing with quarantine, lockdown, and related closures has been a particularly stressful experience for parents (Spinelli et al., 2020, 2021). For example, Seguin et al.'s (2021) study shows that parents’ experience of stress during school closure has been moderate to high.

Despite the promising results, our study has several limitations. First, it must be taken into account that the results presented do not allow causal statements about the effect. The reason, as in Sartor et al. (2022) study, is that no information is available on the stress of mothers before they entered the single-parenting phase. This is important because studies suggest that single mothers’ stress does not primarily result from stress as a mother, but from the lack of a partnership (Pollmann-Schult, 2018). Therefore, future research should compare the stress experienced by single mothers with the stress experienced by mothers in couple families as well as by single women without children. Furthermore, it may be of interest to compare the stress experience with the stress experience of mothers in couple relationships as well.

Second, it should be emphasized that bias in the data may exist both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, single mothers may retrospectively rate their stress before the COVID-19 pandemic as lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the same assumption holds. It is only through the stressor of the COVID-19 pandemic with, among other things, the constraints and all the challenges for single mothers that single mothers perceive that before the stress was less and they were able to manage it more easily. This assumption is based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) well-established transactional stress model, according to which this new stressor causes a reevaluation of the stress before the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Sartor et al. (2022) already found that the data before the COVID-19 pandemic may be biased because it is likely that mainly stressed mothers participated in the survey. This bias may also be present in the data during the COVID-19 pandemic because data recruitment of single mothers, as before the COVID-19 pandemic, was through associations, support groups, and networks of all single mothers. These groups are probably more likely to be joined by stressed single mothers than by mothers who are coping well with the single-parent lifestyle. Mothers who are particularly stressed are probably more likely to have participated in the study because they are interested in the topic and are dealing with it. Therefore, mothers with a lower experience of stress may be underrepresented in this study, as they were in the study by Sartor et al. (2022), and thus the samples may not be representative.

However, a strength of the study is that the data were matched before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using propensity score matching in advance. However, the variables included in the matching are debatable. Many of the variables included are potential stressors or resources on stress experience according to Sartor et al. (2022). Furthermore, the findings of Sartor et al. (2022) show that severe stress results from the accumulation of various stressors. Single parents are presumably more exposed to these stressors. During the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, single mothers with cumulative stresses were likely particularly stressed (Sartor et al., 2022). Future studies should also examine how these potential stressors and resources affect the stress experienced by single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Implications for Family Counselors and Therapists

Given the elevated stress levels experienced by single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial for practitioners to identify the resources and stressors affecting this group. There is an urgent need for targeted interventions and support systems designed specifically for this vulnerable group. Such support would help them navigate the current crisis and prepare for future adversity. Family counsellors and therapists should consider ways to expand and enhance the social networks of single mothers. Helping them develop their skills and boost their self-efficacy could significantly reduce their stress levels. A promising intervention approach could be a multi-level strategy focused on building resilience among these families. Research has shown that parenting stress and perceived child-related stress correlate with resilience (Gayatri & Irawaty, 2022; Russel et al., 2022), so fostering resilience is vital for achieving better outcomes for families headed by single mothers. By addressing these issues with informed practices, family counsellors and therapists can play a pivotal role in supporting single mothers during challenging times, ultimately contributing to healthier family dynamics and improved well-being.

Conclusion

This paper highlights the relevance of research on the stress experience of single mothers, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, single mothers have experienced significantly higher levels of stress in parenting than before the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. This suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, single mothers have fewer resources to manage child rearing and caregiving tasks and are impaired in significant parental functioning domains. In addition, single mothers also experience significantly higher levels of child-related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, they experience higher demands from their child during the COVID-19 pandemic, which puts a particular strain on parental resources to cope with these demands. Due to the higher stress experienced by single mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to identify resources and stressors for single mothers’ stress experience. In addition, an important need for action relates to interventions and support for single mothers as a particularly stressed at-risk group. These interventions and support can be helpful not only in dealing with the pandemic, but also with crises in general. For example, interventions should be initiated to expand and improve the social network of single mothers and they should receive support to strengthen their skills and their self-efficacy beliefs. To this end, one possible approach to support single mothers and as an intervention to reduce the experience of stress could be the multi-level approach of building resilience. Studies show that both parenting stress and perceived stress from children are related to resilience, so building resilience is important for families.

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-tfj-10.1177_10664807261415879 - Supplemental material for Parenting Stress of Single Mothers in Times of Crisis in Germany

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-tfj-10.1177_10664807261415879 for Parenting Stress of Single Mothers in Times of Crisis in Germany by Larissa Pliska, Teresa Sartor, Steffen Wild and Olga Kunina-Habenicht in The Family Journal

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants in the study.

ORCID iDs

Larissa Pliska

Teresa Sartor

Steffen Wild

Olga Kunina-Habenicht

Ethical Considerations

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Technical University Dortmund (approval number: GEKTUDO-2021-25b).

Consent to Participate

Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Consent for Publication

Written informed consent for publication of the results was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

LP, TS, and OK developed the concept for the present study. LP and TS collected the data. All results were computed by LP and SW. The first draft was mainly written by LP. The paper was revised by LP, TS, SW, and OK. All authors contributed to the article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data will be made available by the authors upon request.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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