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.

This article addresses the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES), family processes, and human development. The topic is framed as part of the general issue of health disparities, which involves the oft-observed positive relationship between SES and the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical well-being of adults and children. A review of recent research and theory identifies three general theoretical approaches that provide possible explanations for the association between SES and individual development: the social causation, social selection, and interactionist perspectives. Empirical evidence demonstrates support for the social causation view that SES affects families and the development of children in terms of both family stress processes (the family stress model) and family investments in children (the family investment model). However, there also is empirical support for the social selection argument that individual characteristics lead to differences in SES. Especially important, recent research is consistent with an interactionist approach, which proposes a dynamic relationship between SES and developmental change over time. Drawing on the combined set of research findings, the article concludes with the description of an interactionist model that serves as a heuristic for future studies of the links among SES, parenting behaviors, and child development.

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.

This study of 422 two-caregiver African American families, each with a 10-11-year-old focal child (54% girls), evaluated the applicability of the family stress model of economic hardship for understanding economic influences on child development in this population. The findings generally replicated earlier research with European American families. The results showed that economic hardship positively relates to economic pressure in families. Economic pressure was related to the emotional distress of caregivers, which in turn was associated with problems in the caregiver relationship. These problems were related to disrupted parenting practices, which predicted lower positive child adjustment and higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The results provide significant support for the family stress model of economic hardship and its generalizability to diverse populations.

We propose a model of family conflict and coercion that links economic stress in family life to adolescent symptoms of internalizing and externalizing emotions and behaviors. The 180 boys and 198 girls in the study were living in intact families in the rural Midwest, an area characterized by economic decline and uncertainty. Theoretical constructs in the model were measured using both trained observer and family member reports. These adolescents and their parents were interviewed each year for 3 years during the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Our theoretical model proposes that economic pressure experienced by parents increases parental dysphoria and marital conflict as well as conflicts between parents and children over money. High levels of spousal irritability, coupled with coercive exchanges over money matters, were expected to be associated with greater hostility in general by parents toward their children. These hostile/coercive exchanges were expected to increase the likelihood of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems. Overall, results were consistent with the proposed model. Moreover, the hypothesized processes applied equally well to the behavior of mothers and fathers, as well as sons and daughters.

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.

This 4-year longitudinal study of 191 girls and 185 boys living in intact families in the rural Midwest examines the trajectories of life events and depressive symptoms in adolescence. The trajectories of depressive symptoms differ between boys and girls. Compared with boys, girls experienced a greater number of depressive symptoms after age 13. Changes in uncontrollable events are associated with the increases in girls' but not boys' depressive symptoms. Latent growth curve analyses show that, over 4 years, (a) depressive symptoms for girls changed according to a curvilinear pattern that is associated with changes in stressful events; (b) the level of depressive symptoms is related to the level of life events for both boys and girls; and (c) change in depressive symptoms is significantly related to change in stressful events only for girls. Girls living with less supportive mothers are more vulnerable to negative life changes.Adolescence represents a particularly vulnerable phase of development in the preadult years. This period is marked by rapid physical growth and psychological change. It is also marked by expanding roles into more complex social environments that expose one for the first time to a widening array of stressors and life-shaping choices. Despite all this, most boys and girls traverse this transitional period without significant difficulties. However, some adolescents do experience maladaptive responses to the biological, psychological, and social changes of their adolescent years (Rutter, Izard, & Read, 1986). This longitudinal study investigates the rising prevalence of one important maladaptive indicator-depressive symptoms-by exploring the interlocking nature of depressed mood and life change as represented by developmental and social trajectories. In this article we consider both the descriptive and explanatory import

Charting change in behavior as a function of age and investigating longitudinal relations among constructs are primary goals of developmental research. Traditionally, researchers rely on a single measure (e.g., scale score) for a given construct for each person at each occasion of measurement, assuming that measure reflects the same construct at each occasion. With multiple indicators of a latent construct at each time of measurement, the researcher can evaluate whether factorial invariance holds. If factorial invariance constraints are satisfied, latent variable scores at each time of measurement are on the same metric and stronger conclusions are warranted. In this paper we discuss factorial invariance in longitudinal studies, contrasting analytic approaches and highlighting strengths of the multiple-indicator approach to modeling developmental processes. KeywordsLongitudinal designs; longitudinal models; growth curve models; factorial invariance Longitudinal design is a sine qua non for assessing change and factors that influence change, which are principal goals of developmental science. In longitudinal investigations, participants are assessed at two or more points in time, corresponding to different chronological ages. From these longitudinal assessments, mean levels of behavior, change in behavior, and individual differences in change can be estimated and modeled. Over three decades ago, Wohlwill (1970Wohlwill ( , 1973 formalized these aims as the study of the function relating behavior (B) to chronological age (A), or B = f (A), and the investigation of variables that influence this function. These dual aims are so entwined with the nature of developmental science that few would question the importance of longitudinal investigations, despite attendant problems or confounds.One of the more vexing problems in assessing development -and one that deserves greater attention -is the problem of measurement invariance. Researchers often use the same version of a scale for assessing a given construct at each time of measurement, so they can rest assured that the same construct is assessed, scale scores fall on the same metric, and thus change can be estimated unambiguously. But, just as often, researchers wonder whether to alter measuring instruments as participants get older, using developmentally appropriate measures so they can NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript continue to assess "the same construct." If levels of performance of participants change so much that notable ceiling or floor effects occur at older age levels, measuring devices must change to enable proper estimation of behavioral change (Embretson, 2006(Embretson, , 2007May & Nicewander, 1998). More subtly, if the nature of the construct assessed by an instrument changes with age, an instrument might require alteration to ensure that the same underlying construct is still assessed (Widaman, 1991), although modeling such data requires dealing with changes in the scales, a topic for future investigation...