23 24 Further, the selection criteria for participation in the AHS included a mental illness. However, in bivariate analyses, women with children experienced higher rates of mental health conditions compared with women without children. selleckchem This finding is in keeping with results drawn from the Commonwealth Fund 1998 Survey of Women’s Health where poor single mothers were found to have higher levels of depression compared with poor non-mothers.32 In multivariable models, evidence of the effect of mothering status on mental health was mixed. Controlling for other factors, no differences in alcohol dependence were found among

mothers compared with women without children indicating that mothering status does not predispose or protect a poor woman from alcohol problems. However, mothers

were significantly more likely to meet criteria for substance dependence compared with women without children. While this finding could indicate that poor women with children are more inclined toward substance dependence, it is equally likely that women with substance dependence problems are more likely to have children. In either case, these findings point to the need for timely and appropriate substance abuse treatment targeting homeless mothers, particularly mothers who are involved with child welfare.33 Effects of duration of homelessness on mothering and mental health The duration of homelessness was also found to be related to mental health. In bivariate analyses, rates of PTSD, alcohol dependence and substance dependence were found to be significantly higher among women who had been homeless for 2 or more years compared with women who had been homeless for less than 2 years. While not statistically significant at the 0.05 level, a similar trend was seen for major depression. In multivariable analyses, the relationship between duration of homelessness and mental health was more complex. On the one hand, duration of homelessness was found to be positively related to substance dependence, controlling

for other variables. These results are consistent with other research on the relationship between prolonged and persistent homelessness and substance dependence.34 On the other GSK-3 hand, no independent relationship between duration of homelessness and alcohol dependence was found. Although this finding is inconsistent with previous research conducted by Patterson et al,34 the lack of correspondence across studies may be explained by the different samples and alcohol-related measures examined. Further, Patterson et al did not disaggregate their analyses by sex suggesting that there may be differences between men and women in how duration of homelessness relates to alcohol problems. This study also found that the relationship between mothering and major depression varied by duration of homelessness.