Single-Parent Family Status and Health Outcomes: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA

Name: SAIMSARA Evidence Object longevity::SINGLE_PARENT_FAMILY_PM
Creator: SAIMSARA
License: https://saimsara.com/license/

SAIMSARA

doi:10.62487/saimsarae669c986

SAIMSARA Journal

Machine-Readable Science • ISSN 3054-3991

Single-Parent Family Status and Health Outcomes: Scoping Review with ☸️SAIMSARA

Longevity & Public Health

Issue 2, Volume 1, 2026

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DOI: 10.62487/saimsarae669c986

Editorial note

• Last update: 2026-06-22 09:39:48

What is this paper about

Single-parent family status is not a deterministic risk factor, but it repeatedly signals where children and caregivers may face greater pressure across mental health, chronic illness management, healthcare access, socioeconomic disadvantage, and health-risk behaviors. The full review reveals which risks are most consistent, which family and social supports can buffer them, and where interventions should be tailored rather than generalized.

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Abstract: To synthesize the structured extraction evidence on “single parent family,” identifying the dominant paper-level finding, mapping original research topics, and translating the evidence into clinical, public health, and real-world implications while preserving the distinction between family structure, family processes, socioeconomic context, and service-access barriers. The review uses 609 references and builds its evidence map from 2163 original studies with 34264333 total participants/sample observations (topic-deduplicated ΣN). This scoping review suggests that single-parent family status functions less as a uniform causal exposure and more as a contextual marker identifying families with elevated vulnerability across child and adolescent mental health, chronic-illness management, and health-risk behaviors. The signal was recurrent but consistently conditioned by intersecting pathways, with disparities frequently attenuated after accounting for socioeconomic disadvantage and family processes, and several studies showing comparable outcomes where cohesion, social support, or intentional single parenthood buffered risk. Family cohesion emerged as one of the most consistent protective predictors of health-promoting behavior. Practically, this supports using single-parent status as a flag prompting assessment of family resources and access barriers rather than as a deterministic risk label. Future longitudinal and intervention research should disentangle family structure from material conditions, parenting quality, and service access to clarify which supports most improve outcomes.

Keywords: Single-parent families; Family structure; Single mothers; Child well-being; Family functioning; Parenting stress; Adolescent risk behavior; Child health disparities; Family support; Parental coping

Review Stats

Final search date and database lock: 2026-06-08 13:40:45 CEST
Plan: Pro (expanded craft tokens; source: PubMed)
Source: PubMed
Total Abstracts/Papers: 3254
Downloaded Abstracts/Papers: 3254
Included original and non-original Abstracts/Papers (all): 2460
Included original Abstracts/Papers (Vote counting by direction of effect): 2163
Reference Index (links used in paper): 609
Total participants/sample observations (topic deduplicated ΣN): 34264333

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Reference Index (609)

[1] Family functioning of single-parent families with children attending a special needs school in Japan. — https://doi.org/10.1111/ped.14486
[2] Single-parent family structure and sleep problems in black and white adolescents. — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2013.10.012
[3] Children of single-parent households are at a higher risk of obesity: A systematic review. — https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493519852463
[4] The effectiveness of structural family therapy in repairing behavioral problems and improving family functioning in single-parent families in Iran. — https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12597
[5] ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SINGLE-PARENT FAMILY STRUCTURE AND AGE OF SEXUAL DEBUT AMONG YOUNG PERSONS IN JAMAICA. — https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021932018000044
[6] Family stress and family strengths: a comparison of single- and two-parent families with handicapped children. — https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770120207
[7] Single Parent Family Structure as a Predictor of Alcohol Use among Secondary School Students: Evidence from Jamaica. — https://doi.org/10.22034/apjcp.2018.19.s1.19
[8] Parenting in new family forms. — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.004

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