How Does Disadvantage Shape Family Processes? : A Systematic Test of the Family Stress Model

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

The Family Stress Model posits that harmonious family relationships are disrupted under settings of financial duress due to the psychological burden placed upon caregivers (Conger, Rueter & Conger, 2000). Despite the popularity of this model in the literature, few studies have considered the way in which economic stress disrupts relationships for whole families, nor examined the psychological sequelae of these disrupted relationships across the family unit (i.e., multiple caregivers and children) (Browne, Leckie & Jenkins, 2019; Michaelson, Pickett, King & Davison 2016). This work aims to advance previous findings in this domain that have established connections between economic disadvantage and it’s pathways of entry into the family through various relational subsystems and stressors that are experienced at differential levels within the family unit (Kavanaugh, Neppl & Melby, 2018).
Thus, operating from a Family Systems framework (ComBrinck-Graham & Bauldry, 2011), the present study provides an empirical test of the family stress model using a round-robin design where each member of the family was observed interacting with every other family member. Participants come from a longitudinal birth-cohort of families from Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, called the Kids, Families, and Places study (N=501 families, 1002 children). To evaluate relational disruption, dyads were filmed during a cooperative Lego building task and coded for cognitive sensitivity, up to 12 directed dyadic scores per family were obtained (mother to youngest child, youngest child to mother, mother to oldest child, etc.).
This contrasts the normative approach taken to family research, that utilizes self-report data with a central focus on mothers and children; providing a unique angle by which to investigate how real-time interactions shed light onto potential causal elements that shape family processes and overall functioning for all members. Preliminary results suggest the following cascade model of indirect effects of socioeconomic status on childhood mental health outcomes: Economic stress enhances the risk for maternal mental health challenges, which strains the marital relationship, leading to less sensitive parenting and ultimately, less well-adjusted and healthy children, particularly for younger children in the family. Further analyses will also explore the role of sibling interactions within this context.
These results inform a whole family perspective in working with families in clinical practice, providing nuance and specificity in understanding the differential impacts of economic pressure that reverberate throughout the family unit. In this way, the economic burden of providing for a family may compromise maternal mental health and underlie relational challenges at both the levels of the marital subsystem, and between parents and children. Thus, understanding the ways in which economic pressure may be indirectly transmitted through insensitive interactions between family members has clinical implications for the prevention of psychopathology and the maintenance of overall family wellbeing.

Authors

• Laura Colucci, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author

• Nina Sokolovic, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dillon Browne, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author