Economic Hardship, Parents’ Depression, and Relationship Distress among Couples With Young Children

Abstract

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N = 1,492 couples), we 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 depressive symptoms 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 the 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 a young child. Effect patterns were generally consistent between married and cohabiting couples, with some variation in levels of statistical significance.

Paternal Perinatal Depression Assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Gotland Male Depression Scale: Prevalence and Possible Risk Factors

“…The association between a lower income and possible depression was also observed at area level, when comparing general area median income and the corresponding area prevalence of possible depression. Low income and depression may mutually affect each other and have a reciprocal causal relationship ( Williams & Cheadle, 2016 ). The financial hardship could lead to distress and depression, but impaired mental health may also interfere with provision and career opportunities ( Williams & Cheadle, 2016 .)…”

A longitudinal analysis of financial loss, anxiety, destructive conflict, and relational maintenance

“…At the individual level, financial difficulties appear to co‐occur with (or predict) emotional distress, anxiety, and depression (Afifi et al, ; Butterworth, Rodgers, & Windsor, ; Price, Choi, & Vinokur, ). At the relational level, financial difficulties have been found to directly and indirectly reduce romantic relationship quality and stability (Conger et al, ; Williams & Cheadle, ).…”

“…directly and indirectly reduce romantic relationship quality and stability (Conger et al, 1990;Williams & Cheadle, 2016).…”

Black Intimacies Matter: the Role of Family Status, Gender, and Cumulative Risk on Relationship Quality Among Black Parents

“…Individuals' health and health behaviors play an important role in the quality and stability of intimate partnerships. Scholars contend that adverse health conditions (e.g., mental/physical health and illicit drug use) affect families because individuals may manifest adverse health by withdrawing from family members, displaying anger, persistent complaining, and other forms of negative behaviors, which ultimately leads to the couple's inability to reconcile differences (Karney and Bradbury 1995;Williams and Cheadle 2016).…”

“…We focused on the 5-year data because these data contain multiple relationship quality measures among parents who were in an intimate relationship. Moreover, although it has been well-documented that many parents dissolve their relationships by their child's fifth birthday (Cherlin 2010), there has been some attention given to the relationship quality among those parents who remain together (Carlson and VanOrman 2017;Williams and Cheadle 2016). Thus, for our analytic sample, we include mothers and fathers who self-identified as non-Hispanic Black, and who were either married or cohabiting at the 5-year survey.…”