Multi-dimensional Subjective Wellbeing and Lone Parenthood Following Divorce in Flanders (Northern Belgium)

This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between subjective wellbeing (SWB), divorce, gender, and lone parenthood. We use the cross sectional Divorce in Flanders Survey (2009), comparing divorced, single parents to married parents, and also to each other across genders. Our results confirm the lower levels of SWB reported by divorced, single parents. This is true across multiple dimensions of SWB, including measures of life satisfaction, emotional wellbeing and vitality. Our results highlight the lower wellbeing reported by divorced, single parents in relation to the residential status of children below the age of 18. This is the case for both mothers and fathers, but fathers with non-residential children below 18 reported lower life satisfaction, whereas for the equivalent mothers, emotional wellbeing was diminished. We find little evidence of gender differences between lone mothers and fathers who report residential children. This suggests that the "intensive motherhood" hypothesis, which predicts that parenting may affect the SWB of mothers more negatively than fathers, may operate differently in the case of single vs. married parents.