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Lone mothers face higher risk of poor self-rated health (SRH) than coupled mothers, partly explained by financial strain, non-employment, and welfare context. Comparing the United Kingdom and Sweden, we sought to determine how the economic crisis of 2008 affected the inequality in lone and coupled mothers SRH and what socioeconomic factors impacted this. Survey data was divided into periods corresponding to before, during, and after the economic crisis. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic factors. Financial strain explained 70%–80% of the excess risk for poor health among Swedish lone mothers and 40% of those in the United Kingdom. Controlling for background and socioeconomic factors eliminated the health inequality among Swedish mothers. In the United Kingdom this inequality remained and may reflect the impact of social mechanisms such as stigma. Converse to what was expected, we did not observe significant variation over time in factors affecting SRH, nor did we find conclusive evidence of the impact of the economic crisis on the SRH of lone mothers. Factors that may account for these counterintuitive results, including retrenchment of the Swedish welfare state, economic lag, and reduction in overall inequality in health, are discussed.

Alternate living, i.e. children living 50-50 with their parents following separation is emerging as a new family form. This study is the first to differentiate separated mothers with sole/main custody from mothers with alternately living children, analysing health outcomes and using a sample representative of the population. The association between the self-rated health (SRH) of mothers and different family structures are examined. Parental cooperation is included in the analyses as a potential mediator. Data on 755 mothers from the 2010 Swedish Level of Living Survey were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression. Single mothers with sole/main custody reported poorer SRH than couple mothers in intact families while the difference was not significant for single mothers with children living alternately and mothers in stepfamilies. Controlling for potential confounders, probabilities for poor SRH for single mothers were reduced. The excess risk among mothers with sole/main custody may be due to poorer socioeconomic conditions. Employment was significantly more common among mothers with alternate living and an important explanatory factor for their better health compared to single mothers with sole/main custody. Adjusting for parental cooperation lowered the increased probability for poor SRH among single mothers with sole/main custody compared to single mothers with alternate living.