Single parents still stung by society stigma Saving grace: Single mother Justine Proctor with her 12-year-old son Luke. Self-esteem plays a key part in a single mother's happiness, but makes little difference to the life satisfaction of single fathers, research reveals. Research by Edith Cowan University academic Bronwyn Harman into the life satisfaction of different family formations revealed single parents believe they are still viewed negatively by society. This is despite the fact they account for 17 per cent of families in Australia today. Dr Harman interviewed scores of single parents, and then rated their life satisfaction based on their resilience, self-esteem and social support. She found that while all three factors contributed to the happiness of single mothers, self-esteem "had no impact" on the life satisfaction of single fathers. "Single mothers can have lots of social support, but unless they have that internal self-belief, they don't believe what they're being told," Dr Harman said. With dads, they just believe what they're told, 'you're doing a good job'. Dr Harman found little difference in the "relatively low level" of life satisfaction among both single fathers and single mothers. "When you combine the negative stereotypes with the day-to-day struggle of being a single parent, it would generally not be a very happy place to be," she said. All single parents said they were stigmatised by society. "Single mothers said partnered mothers were threatened by them, viewing them as potential husband stealers," Dr Harman said, noting a perception single mothers leech off society. Single fathers said society viewed them as a 'failure', 'with suspicion', and 'rejected' ... because there is an incorrect but pervasive view that only mothers know how to parent. Single fathers recounted spending tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to secure access to their child, being regularly excluded from special occasions, and being cut out of the communication loop by their child's school. Single mothers reported finding daily life a struggle, with no one to share the burden of illness and tiredness, or their parenting successes. Dr Harman said a lack of social support for single parents contributes to their low levels of life satisfaction. Being a parent with a partner is hard enough, you can't imagine what it would be like juggling and struggling all by yourself with no one to fall back on. Justine Proctor became a single mother five years ago when her husband - from whom she was separated - died. "There are not a lot of good things about being a single parent," she said. Now her son Luke Harford is on the cusp of adolescence, Ms Proctor feels keenly the lack of a partner. "My son is just at the age where he does need a father figure around, a good male role model," she said. Ms Proctor said her "saving grace" was the Single with Children support group. She said the best thing about her family set-up was her bond with Luke. I'm hoping the bond is going to last through the teenage years.