The Effect of Material Hardship on Child Social Skills Via Parental Depression and Coparenting: Testing the Family Stress Model

Objects: A recent study revealed that 36.5% of children resided in households experiencing at least one form of material hardship. Numerous studies have demonstrated a connection between escalating material hardship and adverse developmental outcomes in children. The family stress model (FSM) supported that the effect of material hardship on children is fully mediated through its influence on parents, which has substantiated by previous studies as well. However, there are critical gaps in the existing research aimed at comprehending the effects of material hardship through the FSM. First, coparenting has been largely overlooked in prior studies. Second, though the FSM underscores the significance of the interparental relationship, most previous studies neglected to incorporate reports from both fathers and mothers. To fill the research gap, this study tested the mediation roles of paternal and maternal depression and perceived coparenting to the effect of paternal and maternal material hardship on child social skills.

Method: The analytic sample of the present study was constrained from a longitudinal data, Future of Family and Child Wellbeing study, to include families where both parents completed the interviews when the focal child was 5 years old (N=3,003). The assessment of maternal and paternal material hardship utilized eight items derived from the three-year-old follow-up survey. We incorporated eight items from this survey to assess the perceptions of co-parenting quality for both mothers and fathers separately when focal child was 5 years old. Maternal and paternal depression were assessed independently using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview – Short Form when the focal child was aged 5. The focal child’s social skills were evaluated using the modified Express Subscale of the Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory when the focal child was 9 years old. The investigation addressed its research question by employing Actor Partner Interdependence Mediation Model within structural equation modeling via Mplus 8.3.

Results: The findings reveal the indirect effect of maternal material hardship on child social skills via maternal depression and mother perceived coparenting. There is no significant pathway from paternal material hardship to child social skills. Interdependent relationship of father and mother between material hardship and coparenting were found. Paternal depression shows both actor and partner effects on coparenting. However, maternal depression shows actor-only effect without impact on father perceived coparenting.

Conclusion: Our findings support the FSM in the dyadic family system. This research contributes significantly to the existing literature in two primary ways. First, the study expands the scope by incorporating coparenting into family stress model. It assists the comprehension on how material hardship influences coparenting dynamics and subsequently affects child social skills. Second, the research uniquely considers both fathers and mothers, considering the interdependence between parental roles. the study offers crucial insights for developing interventions aimed at bolstering child development in economically stressed families by advocating for comprehensive approaches that address both parental depression and enhance coparenting relationships, suggesting a multidimensional strategy for practitioners and policymakers.