Mental health among mothers in the U.S. has declined significantly over the past decade, according to a new study based on data from more than 198,000 mothers.
The research, published May 27 in JAMA Internal Medicine, found a steep drop in the percentage of mothers who reported having “excellent” mental health from 2016 to 2023, and an increase in those who said their mental health was “fair or poor.”
Four notes:
1. The study is based on data from 198,417 mothers who participated in the National Survey of Children’s Health, an annual household survey of households with kids through age 17. They self-rated the state of their mental and physical health on a 4-point scale: Excellent, very good, good, or fair/poor.
2. In 2016, about 38% of respondents rated their mental health as excellent. By 2016, that fell to 26%. Over the same period of time, the percentage of mothers who rated their mental health as poor rose from 5.5% to 8.5%, representing a 63.6% increase.
3. The declines in maternal mental health were seen across all socioeconomic groups, though were more pronounced among single mothers and those whose children were publicly insured or uninsured.
4. The study found the drops in maternal mental health began before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting other societal factors may be at play, such as rising costs for housing and child care, one of the authors on the study, Jamie Daw, PhD, told The New York Times.
“Our results highlight the rising tide of worsening mental health among parenting women as a key target for efforts to improve maternal and child health in the U.S.,” Dr. Daw, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, said in a news release. “We found consistently worse health outcomes for mothers compared to fathers, suggesting that mothers may need additional consideration and attention in policies aimed at supporting parental health and especially mental health.”
