Union Dissolution, Partnership Quality, and Parental Mental Health: A Gender Perspective

Objective: This paper examines parental mental health over the separation process and raises the question how it varies by gender and prior partnership quality. Background: Low mental health of single parents is a public health concern. Few studies have examined how patterns develop over the separation process and whether they differ for mothers and fathers.Method: Using data from the German Family Panel (N=1,409 non-separated and 466 separated parents), this paper examines the relationship between separation and parental mental health, spanning the period from three years before to two years after separation. As a method, it combines exact matching and fixed-effects methods. Results: While depression levels of separated parents are higher compared to the control group of parents in partnerships, we do not find any substantial increases in depression across the separation process, spanning from three years prior to two years post-separation. However, we find that patterns strongly differ by pre-partnership quality. Mothers and fathers in low-quality partnerships experience low mental well-being before separation but are likely to see improvement afterward.Conclusion: A longitudinal perspective on mental health trajectories is crucial for understanding the well-being of divorced and separated parents. Often, it is not the separation itself but the pre-existing conflict and stress that lower mental health. In such cases, union dissolution may be a pathway to improved mental well-being.