The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of single-parent families’ negative life changes caused by COVID-19 on challenges of child-rearing through depression and the differences between single-father and single-mother families. In ord...
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of single-parent families’ negative life changes caused by COVID-19 on challenges of child-rearing through depression and the differences between single-father and single-mother families. In order to verify the purpose of this study, a sample of 2,929 single-parents with adolescent children from the raw data of the 2021 Survey of Single-parent Families was selected, and analyses were conducted based on Models 4 and 7 of the process Macro method. The main findings from analyses are as follows. First, single-parent families’ negative life changes caused by COVID-19 positively influenced challenges of child-rearing. Second, single-parents’ depression partially mediated the influence of negative life changes caused by COVID-19 on child-rearing challenges. Third, the type of single-parent families moderated the mediation effect of negative life changes caused by COVID-19 on child-rearing challenges through depression. The mediation effect was found for single-mother families, but not for single-father families. Finally, strategies to support single-parent families raising adolescent children when they suffer from negative life changes were discussed.