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The effects of family economic pressure and adjustment on parenting and adolescent well-being

Based on the family stress model (Conger et al., 2010), the family economic stress model (Mistry et al., 2002) and the conceptual framework for effects of poverty on child and youth mental, emotional, and behavioral health (Yoshikawa et al., 2012), we examined specific mediating paths between family economic pressure and adjustment and well-being of adolescents. The direct and indirect, via parenting behaviors and parenting sense of competence, effects of family economic pressure and adjustment on hope, life satisfaction and self-esteem of adolescents were explored. Data from the first wave of a longitudinal study on parents’ work, family economic hardship and well-being of parents and children were used to estimate the proposed direct and indirect effects of family economic pressure and adjustment on adolescent well-being. Participants were adolescents (6th to 8th grade of elementary school and 1st to 4th grade of secondary school) and their parents (N=280). Adolescents completed the Response to Stress Questionnaire (Wadsworth & Compas, 2004), the Parental Behavior Questionnaire (Keresteš et al., 2012), the Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg et al., 1989), the Children’s Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 2001) and the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Selingson et al., 2003). Parents completed the Scale of Parental Competence (Keresteš et al., 2011) and provided information about family economic pressure and adjustment. The results indicate that experience of family economic pressure and adjustment is significantly related to lower levels of self-esteem, hope and life satisfaction in adolescents. In parents, higher levels of family economic pressure and adjustment are related to lower levels of parenting sense of competence and the use of power-assertive opposed to inductive discipline techniques. The indirect effects of family economic pressure and adjustment on different indicators of adolescent well-being were stronger than the direct effects. The results indicate that the pathways by which family economic pressure and adjustment influence adolescent well-being work similarly for girls and boys. Overall, results were consistent with our proposed theoretical model. The findings provide support for the position that family processes are critical factors through which economic hardship affects adolescent well- being. The results are discussed in the context of timing, depth, and duration of family economic pressure and adjustment in adolescents’ lives, and the mechanisms through which family economic pressure and adjustment affects adolescents’ well-being.

family economic pressure ; family economic adjustment ; parental competence ; hope ; life satisfaction ; self-esteem

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