Household Debt, Maternal Well-Being, and Child Adjustment in Germany: Examining the Family Stress Model by Family Structure

Abstract

The amount of household debt tripled globally over the last decades and a sizable share of individuals and families are overindebted due to mortgages, credit cards, or consumer debt. Yet research on the distribution of debt across families, and potential ripple effects of the psychological burden related to debt on well-being and family relations, remains sparse. Our study aims to fill these gaps by examining the socio-demographic profiles of families that have accumulated household debt and the unique role that the psychological burden related to debt plays on associations between mothers’ well-being, parental dynamics, and child adjustment based on the Family Stress Model (FSM). We used representative survey data collected in 2019 from Germany (N = 3271), which is one of the richest economies worldwide, yet about 10% of adults reported to be overindebted. Logistic regression results showed that single mothers were less likely to have debt compared to mothers in two-parent families. However, both single mothers and mothers in stepfamilies with high levels of perceived economic strain were particularly likely to report having debt. Structural equation modeling yielded that the links between the psychological burden of debt, maternal well-being, parental dynamics, and child adjustment were largely in line with the FSM, except for single mothers. We conclude that persisting financial disparities by family structure may be partially fostered by unique characteristics of the German welfare state, such as promoting more a traditional two-parent norm, and discuss our findings in light of practical implications.

Post-Separation Physical Custody Arrangements in Germany: Examining Sociodemographic Correlates, Parental Coparenting, and Child Adjustment

“…However, children were also more likely to belong to the sole care with no father-child contact group if mothers were less likely to report experiencing high levels compared to no economic deprivation (AME (SE) = −0.07 (0.03), p < 0.05). This is somewhat unexpected because previous research has documented the strong link between single motherhood and the increased risk of poverty (e.g., Chzhen and Bradshaw 2012;Heintz-Martin et al 2021). Lastly, boys were less likely to live with the mother and to have frequent father contact compared to girls (AME (SE) = −0.08 (0.04), p < 0.05), which is in line with the finding by Kalmijn (2016) that boys were more likely to live in SPC families.…”

“…More specifically, individuals are and continue to be embedded in an interwoven and complex web of family ties consisting of the ex-couple, their children, and potentially new partners and biological or stepchildren after a separation or divorce, which fulfill different emotional, social, and material needs. Tensions in parents' ability to work together as a team with regard to their parenting duties and responsibilities can therefore affect children's adjustment and well-being directly and comprehensively (e.g., Walper et al 2021), as well as through spillover processes on the mothers' use of harsher parenting practices (e.g., Heintz-Martin et al 2021;Choi and Becher 2018). Because SPC requires more communication and exchanges between the parents, less conflictual parents are more likely to practice SPC (Poortman and van Gaalen 2017), which is what we also saw in our analyses.…”

Do Children Matter to the Household Debt Burden?

“…Indebtedness is attracting widespread interest due to its significant impact on the economic well-being of households (Bialowolski & Weziak-Bialowolska, 2021;Cai et al, 2021;Heintz-Martin et al, 2021) and family formation (Nau et al, 2015;Sieg & Wang, 2018). On the one hand, it is a way to smooth consumption over the life cycle.…”

“…This study contributes to the literature in three ways. First, existing research on household over-indebtedness and debt types by family structure is limited and dominated by American and Western European data (Heintz-Martin et al, 2021;Xiao & Yao, 2014. We aim to fill this research gap by examining relevant characteristics of Polish households.…”

Changes in household debt due to COVID-19 and mental health concerns among adults in Ontario, Canada

“…Research suggests that an important contributing factor to negative health effects from debt is the stress that often stems from such debt ( Drentea & Lavrakas, 2000 ; Drentea & Reynolds, 2015 ). In turn, debt-related stress is associated with adverse health outcomes such as psychological distress and self-rated poor mental health ( Bridges & Disney, 2010 ; Dijkstra-Kersten et al, 2015 ; Drentea & Reynolds, 2015 ; Hamilton et al, 2019 ; Heintz-Martin et al, 2022 ; Hojman et al, 2016 ; Jenkins et al., 2008 , 2009 ). Unpaid financial obligations were also found to be associated with poorer subjective health and health-related behavior ( Turunen & Hiilamo, 2014 ), in which the debt burden might impede the borrower from making health-maximizing choices.…”