Single mothers are three times more likely to be depressed than any other group of women, a conference of psychiatrists is being told.
More than 5,000 women aged 16 to 64 have been interviewed for the study, which is being presented at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Cardiff.
Findings from the British National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity will be used to assess social disadvantage and depressive disorders in women bringing up children on their own.
The researchers found that 7% of lone mothers were depressed - three times more than the rate of other women.
The milder condition of mixed anxiety/depression was also more common among lone mothers.
The researchers noted that, among the women studied, single mothers' opportunities to work were clearly curtailed by their involvement in child care.
Less than 15% were employed full-time and 54% were economically inactive compared with supported mothers, of whom more than a fifth worked full-time, and only a third were economically inactive.
The authors state: "In our sample, lone mothers were clearly disadvantaged in social terms."
They add that "economic and social disadvantage was sufficient to explain nearly all the association between lone motherhood and depression".
And they warn that the number of lone mothers is increasing in Britain. As a result "their high rates of material disadvantage and of depressive disorder have considerable implications for psychiatric policy."
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