Single motherhood doesn’t make you unhappy

They face the daily challenges that come with looking after their children alone.But a new study has now revealed how mothers who have children while single tend to be happy with their situation.Despite many of the women questioned in the research facing financial problems, lack of support from a partner and feeling that they were disapproved of in society, the study found that having a child did not prompt unhappiness among single mothers.The report, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies and involving women in Poland, also found that challenges faced by single mothers went some way to strengthening bonds with their children.Study co-author Anna Baranowska-Rataj, of Umea University in Sweden, said: 'An arrival of a child either had no impact or even increases the happiness of the single mothers.'Her co-author Monika Mynarska, of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Poland, added: 'Despite all of the difficulties and problems - or maybe because of them - the children are moved to the absolute center of the woman's universe and they are the brightest aspect of their lives.'Moreover, children often give women the power to make decisions they had not been able to make before pregnancy.She added that being responsible for a child's care helped some single mothers to break away from unhappy relationships - and instilled them with caution about starting new ones.Another report contributor, Anna Matysiak, of the Wittgenstein Centre in Austria, said: 'All in all, we found no evidence to support the assumption that the lives of women who became single mothers would have turned out better if they had not given birth and had not decided to raise on their own.'(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az