Maternal mental health has decreased, says the study

Mothers’ mental health in the United States has decreased considerably from 2016 to 2023, according to A great new study Posted Tuesday in Jama Internal Medicine.

The percentage of mothers who evaluated their mental health as “excellent” fell sharply during the study period. At the same time, the percentage of mothers who said that their mental health was mediocre increased – especially among those who were single parents, or whose children had medicated or not insured.

The results take place at a difficult time in the national conversation around parenting and Down birth rate rates. Trump administration is supposed to be weighing strategies To persuade more Americans to get married and have children. But last year, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, who was then the general surgeon, warned On the drop in parental mental health in an opinion that described many of those who elevated children like “exhausted, exhausted and perpetually behind”.

The general surgeon’s report led researchers to the new study to start analyzing data of nearly 200,000 mothers who participated in the National Health of Children’s Survey – an annual survey of households with children up to 17 years old. The researchers found that one in 20 mother said that her mental health was bad or equitable in 2016; By 2023, the report was approximately one in 12. On the other hand, one in 22 fathers questioned reported fair or mediocre mental health in 2023.

There are limits to the study, which was transversal – which means that she looked at the snapshots in time but did not follow the same women from year to year. He also relied on self-assessment. However, the results are not surprising for experts in the field of maternal mental health, who have observed the drop in emotional well-being for years.

Dr. Tamar Gur, director endowed with the Soter Women’s Health Research Program of Ohio State University, said that if nothing else, the new conclusions would help reassure the mothers she treats that they are not the only ones to fight.