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Examining mechanisms linking economic insecurity to interparental conflict among couples with low income

In the US, approximately 7 million families live in poverty. Low household income has been a large focus of poverty research. However, material hardship—defined as everyday challenges related to making ends meet including difficulties paying for housing, utilities, food, or medical care—is common among American families and has not been systematically examined as a complementary indicator of poverty. Relatedly, few poverty-relative studies have included data from both mothers and fathers from low-income backgrounds to understand how poverty, including low household income and material hardship, is associated with key family outcomes. To fill this knowledge gap, the current study used the Family Stress Model to test the mechanisms by which low household income and material hardship contribute to mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms and destructive interparental conflict (i.e., moderate verbal aggression couples use that could be harmful to the partner relationship). Data were from the Building Strong Families project, a large and racially diverse sample of mothers and fathers from low-income backgrounds (N = 2,794). Approximately, 44% of the couples identified as Black, 29% Latinx, 17% White, and 10% Other. Results are highlighted in the Key Findings.