The Quality of Maternal Care and Family Functioning in Single-Mother Versus Biparental Families With Preschool Children: A Comparative Study

Maternal care and family functioning are major factors in controlling childhood disorders. The present study aimed to compare the quality of maternal care and family functioning in single-parent versus biparental families with preschool children. The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 213 single-mother (divorced or widowed) and biparental families with 3- to 6-year-old children in Gonabad County. The data were collected using the maternal care quality questionnaire and the family assessment device (FAD). The mean maternal care quality scores in the single-parent and biparental groups were 116.36 (Standard deviation (SD) = 19.33) and 130.53(SD = 5.70), respectively. The total family functioning scores in the single-parent and biparental groups were 2.70 (SD = 0.18) and 3.02 (SD = 0.11), respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed in the quality of maternal care and family functioning and their respective subscales between single-parent and biparental families ( ps < 0.001). The quality of maternal care and family functioning in single-mother group was significantly lower than the biparental group.