Examining Mechanisms Linking Economic Insecurity to Interparental Conflict in Unmarried Residential Father Families with Low Income

Background and Purpose: Low household income has been the primary focus of poverty research, even though material hardship—everyday challenges related to making ends meet—is common among American families with low income. The current study used the family stress model (FSM) to investigate the mediating pathways between economic insecurity—defined as material hardship and income poverty—and family relationship functioning through several possible paths. First, we hypothesized that the effects of household income poverty on mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms would be mediated by perceived material hardship (H1). Second, we hypothesized that mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms would mediate the associations between material hardship and partner relationship functioning, particularly the use of destructive conflict behaviors to settle disagreements (H2). Finally, we hypothesized that families’ income poverty and material hardship would be directly associated with increased levels of couples’ destructive conflict (H3).

Methods: Participants were from the Building Strong Families project, a sample of racially and ethnically diverse (43.52% Black; 28.88% Latinx; 17.29% White; 10.31% other) unmarried residential couple families living with low income (N=2,794). Economic insecurity included household income and material hardship as reported by both mothers and fathers. Parental depressive symptoms was measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Destructive interparental conflict was measured with items assessing moderate verbal aggression. Taking advantage of over two decades of FSM literature, we employed Bayesian analysis, which allowed to mathematically build in prior evidence into our mediation models. Means and standard errors from 13 prior FSM studies were pooled to create prior distributions.

Results: Material hardship worked above and beyond household income to directly predict couples’ destructive conflict for both mothers (estimate = 0.04, SE = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.08) and fathers (estimate = 0.06, SE = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.09). Material hardship was also indirectly linked with couples’ destructive conflict but for mothers only. Specifically, material hardship was linked with higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms (estimate = 0.11, SE = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.15), which were then linked with higher levels of couples’ destructive conflict (estimate = 0.12, SE = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.16). There was a small indirect effect of material hardship on couples’ destructive conflict through maternal depressive symptoms (indirect effect = 0.01, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.02).

Conclusion and Implications: Overall, the economic stress of meeting the daily material needs of the family sets the stage for parental mental health problems that carry over into destructive interparental conflict, especially through maternal depressive symptoms. The current study results do not support the notion that the social pressures of “stepping up” economically are associated with fathers’ mental health. Federal family strengthening policies and programs should address poverty-impacted families’ everyday material needs and its role in maternal mental health problems and couples’ destructive conflict behaviors. Recruiting fathers' help and support to reduce maternal depressive symptoms in the early years of childrearing may be especially warranted.