Middle-Income Families and Economic Downturn: Changes and Continuities Over Time

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE The “Great Recession” has negatively affected many families across the United States, yet most research has focused on job loss among those already considered poor or working poor. However, the recession has penetrated families whose experiences with economic challenge have seldom been examined. In 2008, these “middle-income” families comprised more than half of American families (53%), which include millions of children. One in seven American children under age 18 (10.5 million) has an unemployed parent as a result of this recession. Problematically, economic mobility for children in the U.S. is embedded in their parents' earning capacities and may or may not be mediated by parents' strategies for children's futures. This research, informed by Weberian stratification notions of opportunity, costs and life chances, explored how middle-income families contended with economic downturn, and how their adolescent children's futures seemed affected.

METHODS The multi-year data are a longitudinal subset of a larger cross-sectional, two-country, multi-city, mixed methods study that used surveys and qualitative semi-structured interviews to explore both “outside” and “inside” perspectives.** Thirty-one parents of middle-schoolers from a site outside Philadelphia who self-categorized in one of two “middle-income” groups, $45-60,000 or $60-75,000, were randomly selected from short survey responses (n = 238) to be interviewed in summer 2008 and complete a longer parent questionnaire, which later also informed the 2009 interviews. The interview subset was similar to the short survey sample on basic demographic characteristics. In summer 2009, 25 of the 31 families were reinterviewed and, to more closely match the other U.S. site sample, five additional families with slightly higher incomes were randomly selected from the initial short survey sample and interviewed. The 30 families also completed a new parent questionnaire. Data from the three questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded using ATLAS.ti qualitative software. The program's memo function and ability to designate multiple coding tiers facilitated comparative analysis of families' experiences and views over time.

RESULTS Economic challenge appears to manifest as a continuum from temporary to chronic rather than as a dichotomy, as earlier research suggests, and is also only one influence on family strategies and child outcomes. Position on the continuum seems strongly affected by presence of and changes in savings or emergency funds and by continuity in particular parental strategies for children's futures, even in difficult economic times. For example, most parents continued to support their children in certain human- or social capital-producing activities, such as extracurricular participation or church engagement. However, for most children, cultural capital accumulation, such as through travel, was constrained or eliminated by parents' finances, employers' increased expectations of parents, or unemployment, which will likely reduce children's future mobility. IMPLICATIONS This research offers a more nuanced understanding of how and in what ways economic challenges affect families. Longitudinal information about constraining changes and mediating continuities among middle-income families in the context of economic downturn could lead to expanded compensatory unemployment and subsidy policies. **This research was funded by the Russell Sage Foundation to the study PIs.