Research during the past decade shows that social class or socioeconomic status (SES) is related to satisfaction and stability in romantic unions, the quality of parent-child relationships, and a range of developmental outcomes for adults and children. This review focuses on evidence regarding potential mechanisms proposed to account for these associations. Research findings reported during the past decade demonstrate support for an interactionist model of the relationship between SES and family life, which incorporates assumptions from both the social causation and social selection perspectives. The review concludes with recommendations for future research on SES, family processes and individual development in terms of important theoretical and methodological issues yet to be addressed.

We propose a family process model that links economic stress in family life to prosocial and problematic adolescent adjustment. Employing a sample of 205 seventh-grade boys aged 12 to 14 years (M = 12.7) and living in intact families in the rural Midwest, the theoretical constructs in the model were measured using both trained observer and family member reports. In general, results were consistent with the proposed model. Objective economic conditions such as per capita income and unstable work were related to parents' emotional status and behaviors through their perceptions of increased economic pressures such as the inability to pay monthly bills. These pressures were associated with depression and demoralization for both parents, which was related to marital conflict and disruptions in skillful parenting. Disrupted parenting mediated the relations between the earlier steps in the stress process and adolescent adjustment. The emotions and behaviors of both mothers and fathers were almost equally affected by financial difficulties, and disruptions in each parent's child-rearing behaviors had adverse consequences for adolescent development.

The authors review findings related to mechanisms of resilience in an ongoing longitudinal study of a cohort of 558 focal youth and their families. The ongoing study began when the cohort of adolescents was in 7th grade. Findings demonstrate that resilience to economic adversity for the parents of the focal adolescents was promoted by marital support, effective problem solving skills, and a sense of mastery. For the cohort of youth, resilience to economic hardship was promoted by support from parents, siblings, and adults outside the family. Resilience to the difficult transitions from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to early adulthood was especially fostered by nurturant‐involved parenting and by less angry or hostile parenting.

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A family process model is proposed that links economic stress in family life to prosocial and problematic adolescent adjustment. With a sample of 220 7th-grade girls living in intact families in the rural Midwest, the theoretical constructs in the model were measured using both trained observer and family member reports. In general, results were consistent with the proposed model. Economic pressures led to depression and demoralization for both parents, the result of which was greater marital conflict and disruptions in skillful parenting. The emotions and behaviors of both mothers and fathers were almost equally affected by financial difficulties, and disruptions in each parent's child-rearing behaviors had adverse consequences for adolescent development. Parents' depressed mood and disrupted child-rearing practices both directly affected girls' adjustment.Evidence continues to accumulate that economic hard times can have severe adverse consequences for families and children, including increased risk of marital dissolution (Bakke, 1940), family disorganization, physical abuse, and child neglect (Kaduschin & Martin, 1981;Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). The recent agricultural crises of midwestern America, the location for the present research, include cases of farm foreclosure, major wage declines, reduced work hours, joblessness, and the loss of human resources through out-migration (Heffernan & Heffernan, 1986;Rosenblatt, 1990). The human toll during the 1980s of such dislocations and deprivations, in both rural and urban settings, has been substantial in terms of family breakdowns and health problems (Dooley & Catalano, 1988;Lasley & Conger, 1986), though remarkably little is known about the causal processes that link economic hardship to these outcomes (Voydanoff & Donnelly, 1988).Mounting economic pressures generally bring budgetary matters to the fore, enhancing preoccupation with financial issues that, in many families, generate frustration, anger, and general demoralization (Conger et al., 1990;Conger et al, 1991;