Economic Stress in Lives: Developmental Perspectives
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elder1988 - p. 27
This article views both family relationships and individual factors as linkages between stressfuleconomic times and lives, with an emphasison the experience of parents and their children. We begin with some analytical considerations about economic stress and the causal process from the macroeconomic level to the microsetting of deprivationalrisk.
elder1988 - p. 27
economic stress refers to the pressures and strains that arise from a substantial income loss, in contrast to the circumstances of chronic hardship or poverty
elder1988 - p. 28
A second definitional issue concerns economic phenomena and routes to change in economic status. Economic stress is generally viewed in terms of unemployment (Kelvin & Jarrett, 1985; Keyssar, 1985). But job loss is concentrated in the lower strata and represents only one of numerous sources of economic decline and hardship.
elder1988 - p. 28
A third definitionalissue concerns the family economy. The typical account of hard times links the events of a failing economy to adverse change in family welfare. But the latter is also the result of changes within the family or household.
elder1988 - p. 28
Consistent with these interdependencies, perspectives on the life course view the family system as both a cause and a consequence of economic events and change (Elder, 1978). External economic change affects the internal dynamics and patterns of family life, and the latter, in turn, affect the economic wellbeing of the family.
elder1988 - p. 29
Finally, studies on change in economic status require a concept of lives lived interdependently(Elder, Caspi, & Burton, 1988).The dynamics of interdependence represent a means by which macroevents and extrafamilial stressors affect individual development, and as we shall see in greater detail, their understanding is a prerequisite for analyzing the social costs of economic stress.
elder1988 - p. 29
Two features of the framework deserve particular attention. First, it draws attention to the options and resources available to the family prior to the occurrence of economic loss. For example, family alternatives in economically deprived circumstancesvary accordingto career stage and household composition, and the age, sex, and number of family members. Similarly, the psychological costs of economic stress depend in part on the attributes (e.g., personality characteristics, social support, physical health) that are brought to the change situation. Second, the model stresses the critical role played by adaptive responses in mediating linkages between economic realities and their influence on children.
elder1988 - p. 30
Our empirical work draws on two longitudinal studies of child development that were launched around 1930 (Eichom, 1981). The Oakland Growth Study is based on an adolescent cohort born in 1920-1921. The Berkeley Guidance Study is based on a cohort of preschool children born in 1928-1929.