Background: The study examined whether the combination of single parenthood and occupational drift in the context of immigration puts single mothers at higher risk for psychological distress compared to married mothers, and investigated the potential mediating and moderating psychosocial factors (social support, sense of coherence–SOC, fluency in Hebrew). Methods: Participants were selected from random samples of married and unmarried mothers, recent immigrants to Israel from the Former Soviet Union, aged 25–50 years. A total of 221 single mothers and 241 married mothers were interviewed. Results: No differences were found in occupational drift or in fluency in Hebrew between the groups. The levels of SOC and social support were significantly lower among the single mothers and mean scores of distress were significantly higher among single (1.48 □ 0.75) compared to married mothers (1.21 □ 0.65, p < 0.001). In multiple linear regressions on distress, no interaction of marital status and occupational drift was found. After inclusion of psychosocial variables, the association of marital status with distress was significantly mediated by SOC and more modestly by social support, and was moderated by social support: the beneficial effect of social support on distress was significantly greater for married mothers than for single mothers. Conclusions: The difference in psychological distress between single and married mothers during the first years after immigration is not due to occupational stressors but to psychosocial resources. Single parenthood should be viewed as a marker of psychosocial risk among immigrant women. © 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Single motherhood Occupational drift Social support Israel Psychological distress Immigration

Psychology, Social immigrant social psychology Israel regression analysis randomization Data Interpretation, Statistical Social Identification human risk assessment immigration language ability middle aged sample Stress, Psychological controlled study Marital Status USSR social support interview marriage Humans examination occupation female stress Risk Factors high risk population scoring system Article women's health major clinical study adult single parent distress syndrome Emigration and Immigration Linear Models employment