Abstract
We tested several models of the associations among economic strain, life stress, coping, involuntary stress responses, and psychological symptoms in a sample of 57 parent-adolescent dyads from rural, lower-income families. Economic strain and life stress predicted symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Stressor-symptom specificity was found for parents, such that economic strain uniquely predicted depression, whereas negative life events predicted hostility. Involuntary stress responses were associated with higher levels of symptoms for both parents and the adolescent children. Secondary control coping was associated with fewer symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Results support a mediational role of coping and responses to stress during adolescence, with a shift to moderational status in adulthood. Implications of these results are discussed with regard to developmental coping theory and potential interventions with at-risk families.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Achenbach, T. M. (1991a). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18 and 1991 Profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
Achenbach, T. M. (1991b). Manual for the Youth Self-Report and 1991 Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.
Attar, B. K., Guerra, N. G., & Tolan, P. H. (1994). Neighborhood disadvantage, stressful life events, and adjustment in urban elementary-school children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 23, 391–400.
Banyard, V. L., & Graham-Bermann, S. A. (1998). Surviving poverty: Stress and coping in the lives of housed and homeless mothers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 68, 479–489.
Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. New York: Guilford.
Belle, D., & Doucet, J. (2003). Poverty, inequality, and discrimination as sources of depression among U.S. women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 101–113.
Berkowitz, L. (1989). Frustration-aggression hypothesis: Examination and reformulation. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 59–73.
Bruce, M. L., Takeuchi, D. T., & Leaf, P. J. (1991). Poverty and psychiatric status: Longitudinal evidence from the New Haven Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 470–474.
Campos, J. J., Campos, R. G., & Barrett, K. C. (1989). Emergent themes in the study of emotional development and emotion regulation. Developmental Psychology, 25, 394–402.
Cole, D. A., & Turner, J. E. (1993). Models of cognitive mediation and moderation in child depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 271–281.
Compas, B. E., Connor, J. K., Harding, A., Saltzman, H., & Wadsworth, M. (1999). Getting specific about coping: Effortful and involuntary responses to stress in development. In M. Lewis & D. Ramsey (Eds.), Soothing and stress (pp. 229–256). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Compas, B. E., Davis, G. E., Forsythe, C. J., & Wagner, B. M. (1987). Assessment of major and daily stressful events during adolescence: The Adolescent Perceived Events Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 534–541.
Conger, R. D., Ge, X., Elder, G. H., Lorenz, F. O., & Simons, R. L. (1994). Economic stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents. Child Development, 65, 541–561.
Connor-Smith, J. K., & Compas, B. E. (2002). Vulnerability to social stress: Coping as a mediator or moderator of sociotropy and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 26, 39–55.
Connor-Smith, J. K., Compas, B. E., Wadsworth, M. E., Thomsen, A. H., & Saltzman, H. (2000). Responses to stress in adolescence: Measurement of coping and involuntary stress responses. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 976–992.
Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratos, N. (1983). The Brief Symptom Inventory: An introductory report. Psychological Medicine, 13, 595–605.
Dubois, D. L., Felner, R. D., Meares, H., & Krier, M. (1994). Prospective investigation of the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage, life stress, and social support on early adolescent adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 311–522.
Ennis, N. E., Hobfoll, S. E., & Schröder, K. E. E. (2000). Money doesn’t talk, it swears: How economic stress and resistance resources impact inner-city women’s depressive mood. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 149–173.
Felner, R. D., Brand, S., DuBois, D. L., Adan, A. M., Mulhall, P. F., & Evans, E. G. (1995). Socioeconomic disadvantage, proximal environmental experiences, and socioemotional and academic adjustment in early adolescence: Investigation of a mediated effects model. Child Development, 66, 774–792.
Fuller, B. E., Chermack, S. T., Cruise, K. A., Kirsch, E., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Zucker, R. A. (2003). Predictors of aggression across three generations among sons of alcoholics: Relationships involving grandparental and parental alcoholism, child aggression, marital aggression and parenting practices. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 64, 472–483.
Garmezy, N., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence in children: A building block for developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 97–111.
Grant, K. E., Finkelstein, J. S., & Lyons, A. L. (2003). Integrating psychological research on girls with feminist activism: A model for building a liberation psychology in the United States. American Journal of Community Psychology, 31, 143–155.
Hammen, C. (2002). Context of stress in families of children with depressed parents. In S. Goodman and I. Gotlib (Eds.), Children of depressed parents: Mechanisms of risk and implications for treatment (pp. 175–199). Washington: American Psychological Association.
Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1996). Personality traits and the coping process. In M. Zeidner & N. S. Endler (Eds.), Handbook of coping (pp. 410–133). New York: Wiley.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four factor index of social status. Unpublished manuscript. Yale University, Department of Sociology.
Holmbeck, G. N. (1997). Toward terminological, conceptual, and statistical clarity in the study of mediators and moderators: Examples from the child-clinical and pediatric psychology literatures. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 599–610.
Langrock, A. M., Compas, B. E., Keller, G., Merchant, M. J., & Copeland, M. E. (2002). Coping with the stress of parental depression: Parents’ reports of children’s coping, emotional, and behavioral problems. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 312–324.
McLoyd, V. C. (1990). The impact of economic hardship on black families and children: Psychological distress, parenting, and socioemotional development. Child Development, 61, 311–346.
McLoyd, V. C., & Wilson, L. (1994). The strain of living poor: Parenting, social support, and child mental health. In A. C. Huston (Ed.), Children in poverty: Child development and public policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Quittner, A. L., Glueckauf, R. L., & Jackson, D. N. (1990). Chronic parenting stress: Moderating versus mediating effects of social support. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1266–1278.
Sakoda, J. M., Cohen, B. H., & Beall, G. (1954). Test of significance for a series of statistical tests. Psychological Bulletin, 51, 172–175.
Seginer, R., Vermulst, A., & Gerris, J. (2002). Bringing up adolescent children: A longitudinal study of parents’ child-rearing stress. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26, 410–422.
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodology 1982 (pp. 290–312). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Stone, A. A., Greenberg, M. A., Kennedy-Moore, E., & Newman, M. G. (1991). Self-report situation-specific coping questionnaires: What are they measuring? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 648–658.
U.S. Census Bureau. (1999). Poverty in the United States: 1998. Current Population Reports. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Vinokur, A. D., Price, R. H., & Schul, Y. (1995). Impact of the JOBS intervention on unemployed workers varying in risk for depression. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 39–74.
Wadsworth, M. E., & Compas, B. E. (2002). Coping with economic strain and family conflict: The adolescent perspective. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12, 243–274.
Wadsworth, M. E., Gudmundsen, G. R., Raviv, T., Ahlkvist, J. A., McIntosh, D. N., Kline, G. H., et al. (2004). Coping with terrorism: Age and gender differences in effortful and involuntary responses to September 11th. Applied Developmental Science, 8, 143–157.
Wadsworth, M. E., Rieckmann, T., Benson, M., & Compas, B. E. (2004). Coping and responses to stress in Navajo adolescents: Psychometric properties of the Responses to Stress Questionnaire. Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 391–411.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wadsworth, M.E., Raviv, T., Compas, B.E. et al. Parent and Adolescent Responses to PovertyRelated Stress: Tests of Mediated and Moderated Coping Models. J Child Fam Stud 14, 283–298 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-005-5056-2
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-005-5056-2