NEW YORK – The mental health of mothers in the United States declined significantly from 2016 to 2023, according to a large new study published recently in Jama Internal Medicine.

The percentage of mothers who rated their mental health as “excellent” dropped sharply during the study period. At the same time, the percentage of mothers who said their mental health was poor increased – particularly among those who were single parents, or whose children had Medicaid or were uninsured.

Medicaid is an American government programme that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources.

The findings come at a fraught moment in the national conversation around parenting and declining birth rates. The Donald Trump administration is said to be weighing strategies to persuade more Americans to get married and have children.

But in 2024, Dr Vivek H. Murthy, who was then the surgeon-general, warned about declining parental mental health in an advisory that described many who were raising children as “exhausted, burned out and perpetually behind”.

His report led the researchers behind the new study to begin analysing data from nearly 200,000 mothers who participated in the National Survey of Children’s Health – an annual survey of households with children up to age 17.

Researchers found that one in 20 mothers reported her mental health was poor or fair in 2016; by 2023, the ratio was about one in 12. In contrast, one in 22 fathers surveyed reported fair or poor mental health in 2023.

There are limitations to the study, which was cross-sectional – meaning it looked at snapshots in time, but did not follow the same women year over year. It also relied on self-reporting. Still, the findings were not surprising to experts in the field of maternal mental health, who have been observing the decline in emotional well-being for years.

Dr Tamar Gur, endowed director of the Soter Women’s Health Research Program at Ohio State University, said that if nothing else, the new findings would help reassure the mothers she treats that they are not the only ones struggling.

“Now, I have something I can point to when I’m seeing a patient and say, ‘You’re not alone in this,’” said Dr Gur, who was not involved in the study. “This is happening nationally, and it’s a real problem.”

The new study was not designed to address the question of why maternal mental health seems to be on...