Mental Health and Family Status

In this entry we apply a life course perspective to examine the ways in which family status shapes mental health. We provide an overview of contemporary research on the effects of marriage and parenthood on mental health as well as the ways in which parents shape their children's mental health. Although some evidence suggests that married people, children raised in two-parent families, and the childless have better mental health than the unmarried, children raised in other family forms, and parents, contemporary research also suggests that the quality of family relationships is as important for mental health as the presence or absence of family ties. In addition, a variety of other factors, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and social norms and meanings, also matter in determining the mental health costs and benefits of particular family ties. Finally, contemporary research suggests that the costs and benefits of particular family ties on mental health are cumulative over the life course. Keywords: caregiving; children; family; marriage; sociology of mental health