The impact of family income and parental factors on children's resilience and mental well‐being

Abstract

Although there is robust evidence on the intergenerational transmission of trauma‐related distress, much less is known about the relation of family income and parental resilience on the resilience and mental well‐being of traumatized children. We aimed to determine the association between parental resilience and perceived financial stability, and the resilience and depression of their children among Syrian refugees in Jordan. We carried out a survey of 363 parent−child dyads from a refugee clinic in Northern Jordan. Measures of resilience, trauma, symptoms of mental illnesses, and demographics were reported by the mother and child. We evaluated the associations between parental resilience and their children's mental health. Resilience was highest among parents who reported that their income met their financial needs, (65.77 [standard deviation (SD) 15.96]), and lower for those who reported less income or who stated that their income met their needs only fairly well (62.77 [SD 17.56]). Resilience was lowest for those who reported that that income met their needs poorly (48.02 [SD 23.24]). Parent resilience was positively correlated with child resilience (β = 0.076 [95% confidence interval 0.035−0.12], p < 0.001). Depression and resilience of parents were most closely correlated with the depression and resilience scores of their children, among parents who reported the highest financial stability. Income plays a modifying role in the parent−child resilience and depression associations, with this association being least pronounced within those families who were financially less secure. These findings can help develop interventions to target parental transgenerational impacts according to income status.

Predictors of income level: A sociodemographic, social and contextual analysis

“…Furthermore, participants with lower incomes more frequently compare their standard of living to that of their parents as being worse than individuals with medium and high incomes (Bruno et al 2023). Those with lower incomes often encounter obstacles in progressing economically, leading to a perception that their standard of living is declining compared to that of their parents.…”

Multisystemic supports and adolescent resilience to depression over time: A South African mixed methods study

“…Similarly, it will be necessary to investigate the resilience of the systems adolescents are connected to, and within/across system impacts when system resilience increases or declines. Given the prominence of caregiver/family supports in sub-Saharan adolescent resilience (Theron, 2020; Van Breda & Theron, 2018), and understanding that caregiver resilience is associated with adolescent resilience (Bruno et al, 2023), future studies of African adolescent resilience ideally need to investigate their caregivers’ resilience and factors associated with that resilience. Further, because adolescents also impact the systems they are connected to (Masten et al, 2021), it will be important to investigate how changes in adolescent resilience trajectories impact the systems that support them.…”

Influence of home chaos on preschool migrant children’s resilience: A moderated mediation model

“…Children face numerous risk factors and protective factors in their lives, especially in the family system. In recent years, a number of studies have focused on the influence of family functions, parenting concepts and parenting styles, and parent-child relationships in the family environment on children's resilience (Tamura, 2019;Wu et al, 2020;Bruno et al, 2023). In addition, there is also a portion of studies that have examined the impact of social support in family and social networks on family and individual development (Hassanein et al, 2021).…”