Economic stress, parenting, and adolescents’ adjustment during the COVID‐19 pandemic

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Natalie Low,Nina S. Mounts
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12623

RESEARCH

Economic stress, parenting, and adolescents’

adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Natalie Low|Nina S. Mounts

Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois

University, DeKalb, IL, USA

Correspondence

Nina S. Mounts, Department of Psychology,

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

60115 USA.

Email: nmounts@niu.edu

Abstract

Objective: This investigation examined pathways through

which financial stress impacts parents’and adolescents’

well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Pandemic-related stress (e.g., financial stress)

experienced by parents may indirectly affect adolescents’

well-being, although the pathways involved are currently

unknown.

Method: Families currently living in the United States and

havingadolescentsbetween12and18 yearsoldpartici-

pated in this investigation (N=272). Parents responded to

questionnaires online about their financial situation, per-

sonal well-being, relationship with their oldest typically

developing adolescent (12–18 yearsold;M

age

=14.74;

SD

age

=1.80; 46.4% young women), and their adolescents’

well-being.

Results: Higher levels of financial stress were related to

higher levels of parental psychological distress, higher

levels of parenting stress, and higher levels of adolescent

loneliness. Higher stay-at-home intensity was related to

higher levels of parenting stress, higher levels of parent–

adolescent conflict, and poorer adolescent adjustment.

Several significant indirect paths were identified between

financial stress and adolescents’adjustment. The relation-

ship between financial stress and adolescents’well-being

(i.e., internalizing behaviors and loneliness) was mediated

by parental psychological distress and parenting stress.

When parenting stress was a mediator, the effect was more

pronounced the more time families spent at home.

Conclusion: Parents who were worried about their finan-

cial situation had greater difficulty with psychological dis-

tress and parenting stress, especially when parents were

spending more time at home.

Implications: Understanding the way in which financial

stress influences parents’and adolescents’adjustment

Received: 7 April 2021Revised: 11 October 2021Accepted: 5 November 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12623

© 2021 National Council on Family Relations.

90 Family Relations. 2022;71:90–107.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

during the pandemic will inform and prepare practitioners

and policymakers for similar situations in the future.

KEYWORDS

adolescence, COVID-19 pandemic, financial stress, parent distress,

parenting

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives and well-being of families. In the

United States, increasing unemployment rates and economic instability have heightened levels

of financial stress. As states mandated school closures (Golberstein et al., 2020) and companies

required employees to work from home, parents were expected to adapt quickly to their new

work and home roles and demands. Limited access to social support and additional concerns

about job and financial security exacerbated parents’financial stress levels and psychological

distress (Liu & Doan, 2020; Prime et al., 2020). Pandemic-related stress reflects the emotional

or physical tensions that arise because of the changes that families experience in their daily lives

due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The adverse effects of financial stress on individual well-being is well established (Kaiser

et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2011). However, the pathways in which financial stress relates to parents’

and adolescents’psychosocial adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been

explored. Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sudden economic and social

changes have created immediate disruption in daily family functioning. In addition to parents

being directly impacted financially and psychologically by the pandemic, adolescents also may

experience similar effects (Ellis et al., 2020). Feelings of social isolation may be further exacer-

bated by reduced opportunities for face-to-face interactions because of social distancing require-

ments and school closures (Ellis et al., 2020; Oosterhoff et al., 2020; Valkenburg & Peter, 2011),

increasing adolescents’susceptibility for developing internalizing behaviors (Ackerman

et al., 2004; Schwartz et al., 2012). Thus, adolescents’internalizing behaviors and loneliness

were outcome variables of interest in this investigation.

Because adolescents and parents are spending more time together at home, there are two

potential “stress contagion”effects—spillover and crossover—that may occur (Liu &

Doan, 2020). A spillover effect of parental financial stress on parenting stress may occur such

that the effects of work-related or financial issues may spillover to the parenting context. Alter-

natively, a crossover effect may occur such that negative effects of the COVID pandemic, such

as parental psychological distress, might crossover to other members of the family, such as ado-

lescents, and adversely impact their well-being. This investigation adapts portions of the family

economic stress model (Conger & Donnellan, 2007) to examine the pathways through which

financial stress may be transmitted within the family and thus be associated with adolescents’

internalizing behaviors and feelings of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FAMILY ECONOMIC STRESS MODEL

The family economic stress model illustrates the way in which financial stress impacts adoles-

cents’well-being directly and indirectly thorough parental well-being, marital conflict, and par-

enting behaviors (see Figure 1; Conger & Donnellan, 2007). Financial stress arises from having

difficulty in fulfilling basic material needs, such as having enough food and paying bills (see

Figure 1; Box A). Low-income families are more likely to hold jobs in areas most affected by

the pandemic and thus experience greater financial stress (Douglas et al., 2020; Dunn

et al., 2020). Families may also experience other employment-related concerns, such as unem-

ployment. The sudden employment transitions that occurred during the pandemic may not have

ECONOMIC STRESS AND PARENTING DURING COVID91