Single parenthood, gender, and mortality

Despite the well-documented health disadvantages of single motherhood, research on single fathers’ health remains limited owing to scarce data on this growing population. The influence of life course factors, such as partnership history and timing, on single parents’ health is also understudied. Using high-quality register data on the total Danish population, this study (1) compares the mortality risk of single and partnered parents and (2) investigates heterogeneity in single parents’ mortality by considering pathways into single parenthood, repartnering, child age, and episode length. Results show that single fathers have the highest all-cause mortality risk of all parent groups. Cause-specific analyses suggest that they are at especially high risk of dying by suicide or substance abuse. Mortality rates are higher for mothers entering single parenthood through being unpartnered than through partnership loss. Repartnering mitigates the negative effects of single parenthood. Mothers experiencing single parenthood when their youngest child was aged 1‒5 have lower mortality risk than peers who became single mothers of teenagers. The length of time spent as a single parent does not influence mortality. These findings highlight considerable diversity in parents’ longevity and underscore the need for further attention to the health disadvantages of single fathers.