Financial Stress, Parental Depressive Symptoms, Parenting Practices, and Children's Externalizing Problem Behaviors: Underlying Processes

• Author: Chih‐Yuan Steven Lee,Gerald J. August,Jaerim Lee
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2011.00656.x
• Published date: 01 October 2011
• Date: 01 October 2011

CHIH-YUAN STEVEN LEE Montclair State University

JAERIM LEE Yeungnam University*

GERALD J. AUGUST University of Minnesota Medical School**

Financial Stress, Parental Depressive Symptoms,

Parenting Practices, and Children’s Externalizing

Problem Behaviors: Underlying Processes

This study examined the relationships among

financial stress encountered by families,

parents’ social support, parental depressive

symptoms, parenting practices, and children’s

externalizing problem behaviors to advance our

understanding of the processes by which fam-

ily financial stress is associated with children’s

problem behaviors. We also tested moderated

mediation to investigate if these relationships

differed depending on children’s characteristics.

The data were drawn from 290 predominantly

rural families with young children who were

identified as at risk for the development of seri-

ous conduct problems. Using structural equation

modeling, we found that the relationship between

family income and children’s externalizing prob-

lem behaviors was mediated by parents’ social

Department of Family and Child Studies, Montclair State

University, 4180 University Hall, Montclair, NJ 07043

(leech@mail.montclair.edu).

*Department of Family and Housing Studies, Yeungnam

University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 712-749, South Korea.

**Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of

Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55454.

Key Words: externalizing problem behaviors, family income,

moderated mediation, parental depressive symptoms, par-

enting practices, social support.

support, parental depressive symptoms, and par-

enting practices. The results also showed that

the children’s levels of aggression severity, aca-

demic functioning, and developmental strengths

moderated the mediating relationships between

family income and parental depressive symp-

toms and between family income and positive

parenting.

Numerous studies have examined the relation-

ships among financial stress, parenting, and child

development along with their underlying pro-

cesses (Brody, Murry, Kim, & Brown, 2002;

Gershoff, Aber, Raver, & Lennon, 2007; Linver,

Brooks-Gunn, & Kohen, 2002; Mistry, Lowe,

Benner, & Chien, 2008; Nievar & Luster, 2006;

Simons, Lorenz, Wu, & Conger, 1993). The

results have consistently shown that through

low levels of social support or elevated levels

of parental depressive symptoms, or both, finan-

cial stress is associated with fewer optimal or

disruptive parenting behaviors. These behaviors,

in turn, increase the likelihood of developmen-

tal maladjustment in children, such as displaying

externalizing problem behaviors. Little research,

however, has examined the interactive processes

among these variables in at-risk populations,

particularly those in need of interventions (e.g.,

Kotchick, Dorsey, & Heller, 2005).

476 Family Relations 60 (October 2011): 476 – 490

DOI:10.1111/j.1741-3729.2011.00656.x