Through research I discovered that George Brown and Patricia Moran said that "single mothers were twice as likely as their married counterparts to be in financial hardship..." and additionally that "poor self esteem" and "lack of support" hurt single mother's chances of stability and leads towards depression. Being in poverty and being a single mother adds to the already stressful things in daily life, and without the support of a spouse, family, or significant other, most of these women will deal with these issues by internalizing their stress or taking it out on their children.



Citation: 
 GEORGE W. BROWN and PATRICIA M. MORAN (1997). Single mothers, poverty and depression. Psychological Medicine, 27, pp 21-33.