Poster #31 - The role of fluctuations in monthly economic circumstances on caregiver mental health

• In Event: Poster Session 12

Abstract

Adults who experience greater economic difficulty, on average, exhibit worse mental health outcomes, including depression (Macintyre et al., 2018; Miech et al., 1999). Economic circumstances encompass a wide-ranging set of indicators, including objective measures of economic resources (e.g., income, wealth) and subjective measures of economic wellbeing (e.g., subjective social status (SSS), subjective financial support (SFS)). Largely disconnected literatures have demonstrated links between objective economic indicators and mental health, as well as subjective economic wellbeing and mental health (Wang et al., 2022). However, studies have not explored how these dimensions of economic circumstances relate to adult mental health when considered simultaneously. This is critical as various aspects of economic wellbeing are interrelated, so understanding how one aspect predicts mental health requires isolating that association from other aspects of economic conditions. Despite rising levels of economic precarity and estimates showing approximately 7.5 million parents report feeling depressed, the unique impacts of objective and subjective economic circumstances (wealth, SSS, SFS) on parent mental health have not been well documented (NRC, 2009). Furthermore, no studies have examined how monthly fluctuations in objective and subjective economic circumstances impact caregivers' mental health despite growing volatility in household economic conditions (Lyu & Sun, 2020; Chen & Miller, 2013).

Data from the Family Income Dynamics study (FInD), a longitudinal study of caregivers with adolescent children (see Table 1 for descriptive statistics), are used to examine the following questions: (1) Do caregiver economic circumstances (income, wealth, SSS, and SFS) fluctuate month-to-month; (2) How does variation in economic circumstances relate to caregiver mental health over time? We expect that better objective and subjective economic circumstances will relate to reduced rates of depression over time.

Caregivers reported on measures of economic circumstances every month for nine months, including monthly income (i.e., sources of income, assistance programs, benefits, etc.), wealth (i.e., net worth, debt, savings), the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (Adler et al., 2000), and monthly subjective financial support. Symptoms of depression were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977). We conducted interclass correlations to investigate stability in economic circumstances over nine months, and fixed effects models were estimated to link economic circumstances with parent mental health. Future work will use multi-level models to further investigate these relationships over time.

Interclass correlations show modest consistency within individual reports for monthly income ICC=.76 with a 95% CI [.70-.81], SSS ICC = .73 and a 95% CI [.65-.80], and SFS ICC=0.70 with a 95% CI [.63-.76]. CES-D showed modest consistency ICC=.76 with a 95% CI [.70-.82]. Preliminary results show that caregiver reports of monthly income, debts, and net worth predict caregiver depression (see Table 2). However, when both objective and subjective economic circumstances are included, only monthly income, debts, and SSS remain significant predictors. We argue that both objective and subjective markers of economic conditions affect parents' mental health, however, further research is needed to ascertain if these effects are comparable and how they may affect parent and family functioning.

Authors

• Chelsea R Ptak, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Portia Miller, University of Pittsburgh

• Jamie L Hanson, University of Pittsburgh

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh