TY - JOUR
T1 - Economic Hardship, Parents’ Depression, and Relationship Distress among Couples With Young Children
AU - Williams, Deadric T.
AU - Cheadle, Jacob E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Bridget Goosby, Julia McQuillian, and Catherine Huddleston-Casas for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. This article was developed as part of the first author’s doctoral dissertation, which was supported by a fellowship from the American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship Program.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The FFCW was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development through grants R01HD36916, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421, as well as a consortium of private foundations.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, © American Sociological Association 2015.
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - Using data from the FFCW (n = 1,492 couples), the authors assessed stress, health selection, and couple-crossover hypotheses by examining (1) the bidirectional association between economic hardship and depressive symptoms one, three, and five years after the birth of a child; (2) the association between economic hardship and depression on relationship distress for both parents; and (3) whether the associations vary by marital status. The results suggest a pernicious cycle for mothers after the birth of a child. Economic hardship increases depression, but maternal depression also increases economic hardship. These reinforcing mechanisms increase both mothers’ and fathers’ relationship distress. Taken together, policies aimed at strengthening couples’ relationships should work in tandem with economic and mental health policies to reach optimal outcomes for couples with young children. Effect patterns were generally consistent between married and cohabiting couples, with some variation in levels of statistical significance.
AB - Using data from the FFCW (n = 1,492 couples), the authors assessed stress, health selection, and couple-crossover hypotheses by examining (1) the bidirectional association between economic hardship and depressive symptoms one, three, and five years after the birth of a child; (2) the association between economic hardship and depression on relationship distress for both parents; and (3) whether the associations vary by marital status. The results suggest a pernicious cycle for mothers after the birth of a child. Economic hardship increases depression, but maternal depression also increases economic hardship. These reinforcing mechanisms increase both mothers’ and fathers’ relationship distress. Taken together, policies aimed at strengthening couples’ relationships should work in tandem with economic and mental health policies to reach optimal outcomes for couples with young children. Effect patterns were generally consistent between married and cohabiting couples, with some variation in levels of statistical significance.
KW - depression
KW - dyads
KW - economic hardship
KW - relationship distress
KW - stress process
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U2 - 10.1177/2156869315616258
DO - 10.1177/2156869315616258
M3 - Article
C2 - 27942421
AN - SCOPUS:85006223089
SN - 2156-8693
VL - 6
SP - 73
EP - 89
JO - Society and Mental Health
JF - Society and Mental Health
IS - 2
ER -