Finances, depressive symptoms, destructive conflict, and coparenting among lower-income, unmarried couples: A two-wave, cross-lagged analysis.

Following from an adapted family stress model (FSM), we used two-wave, secondary data from the Building Strong Families project, focusing on 4,424 primarily lower-income, unmarried couples expecting their first child together. We used cross-lagged analyses to test the directionality of the associations among financial difficulties, depressive symptoms, destructive interparental conflict, and coparenting alliance for both fathers and mothers when children were 15 and 36 months old. Two of the three hypotheses provided support for the FSM. First, destructive conflict predicted coparenting alliance (but not the reverse). Specifically, higher destructive conflict at 15 months for both fathers and mothers predicted lower coparenting alliance at 36 months for both fathers and mothers. Second, depressive symptoms predicted destructive conflict (but not the reverse). Specifically, fathers' (but not mothers') higher depressive symptoms at 15 months predicted both their own and mothers' higher destructive conflict at 36 months. Contrary to predictions, financial difficulties did not predict depressive symptoms; instead, we found support for the reverse: For mothers only, higher depressive symptoms at 15 months predicted higher financial difficulties at 36 months. Collectively, the results support the use of the FSM to understand the directionality of associations among key risk factors, especially depressive symptoms and destructive conflict, for primarily lower-income, unmarried couples expecting their first child together. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Family Matters: Decade Review from Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

This article reviews research regarding economic influences on a variety of family matters published in Journal of Family and Economic Issues from 2010 to 2019. As finances permeate nearly every facet of everyday life, scholarly research related to finances and family issues has spanned a wide array of topics. We briefly review research focused on the following 11 areas related to finances and family matters: (a) family formation decisions, (b) gender and relational power in family finances and relationships, (c) finances and fathers, (d) finances and mothers, (e) finances and parenting, (f) finances and elderly family members, (g) finances and couple relationships, (h) supporting family members financially, (i) how economic policy affects family, (j) economic roots of migration by family members, and (k) family financial socialization. As we enter a new decade, emphasis to directions for future research is given and integrated throughout. Recommendations specific to each of these topics are integrated into the discussion of the topic. Additional and more general recommendations for future research are offered as we conclude our review.

Financial Socialization: A Decade in Review.

The financial socialization individuals receive is associated not only with their future financial wellbeing but also relational, mental, and physical wellbeing. This paper is a review of the literature on financial socialization, especially papers published between 2010 and 2019 in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. We first review family financial socialization theory and then review empirical documentation for the theory, organized by (a) family socialization processes (e.g., parent financial modeling, parent-child financial discussion, and experiential learning as three primary methods of financial socialization) and (b) financial socialization outcomes (e.g., financial attitudes, financial knowledge, financial behaviors, and financial wellbeing). Finally, we discuss future directions for the field.