Marital Status and Mothers’ Subjective Well-Being in China: Life-Course Patterns and Post-Divorce Co-Parenting Support

Abstract

Using data from the 2023 Survey on the Status and Needs of Single Mothers in China (N = 3,167), this study examines the association between marital status and mothers’ subjective well-being from a life-course and cumulative disadvantage perspective. We compare life satisfaction among continuously married, divorced, widowed, and remarried mothers, examine variation by mothers’ age and children’s developmental stages, and analyze post-divorce co-parenting support among divorced mothers. Results show that continuously married mothers report the highest life satisfaction, divorced and widowed mothers report significantly lower levels, and remarried mothers occupy an intermediate position. Marital duration and time since divorce or widowhood are not significantly associated with life satisfaction. However, marital-status disparities vary across life-course contexts, especially among mothers in central adulthood and those with adolescent children. Among divorced mothers, regular child-support payment and fathers’ involvement in childrearing are positively associated with life satisfaction. These findings highlight marital status as an institutional position embedded in mothers’ life courses and show that the continuation of parental responsibility after divorce is closely linked to divorced mothers’ well-being.

Keywords

marital status motherhood subjective well-being life course cumulative disadvantage co-parenting support China

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