title: The economic status of parents with serious mental illness in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Parents with serious mental illness may be vulnerable to financial insecurity, making successful parenting especially difficult. We explored relationships among parenting, serious mental illness, and economic status in a nationally representative sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample included all working-age participants from the 2009 and 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 77,326). Two well-established scales of mental health distinguished participants with none, mild, moderate, and serious mental illness. We compared economic status by parenthood status and mental illness severity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rates of employment were low for parents with serious mental illness (38% full time and 17% part time among mothers; 60% full time and 9% part time among fathers) compared with parents with no mental illness (50% full time and 19% part time among mothers; 85% full time and 5% part time among fathers). Mothers and fathers with serious mental illness were twice as likely to fall below the U.S. Census poverty threshold as their peers without mental illness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents with serious mental illness are less likely to be employed than those without mental illnesses, and are highly likely to be living in poverty. Reducing poverty by helping parents with serious mental illness achieve better jobs and education is likely to translate into family stability and better outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luciano
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult