Economic hardship

Definitions

• Experience of not having enough financial resources to cover basic expenses @drentea2015
• Families’ inability to meet their needs such as food, clothing, and health care; synonymous to material hardship (@friedline2021)
• Objective circumstances that typically give rise to the feeling of financial stress, such as loss of job, unexpected medical or legal expenses, chronic overspending, investment losses, or gambling (@davis2004)
• Perception of inability to afford essential needs and desired wants, a synonym to financial hardship (@rosso2024)

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Theoretical frameworks

• Stress process theory:
  • @drentea2015: supposes exposure to stress — such as being fired, worrying about money — affects mental health and is shaped, buffered or nerfed by one’s level of support
  • @lempers1989: individual socio-environmental characteristics are important mediators of the effects of economic hardship and other stressors on physical and psychological distress
• Cognitive-transactional stress theory:
  • @marjanovic2013: uses this theory to subside the relationship between subjective estimated harm of a financial stressor and the coping response

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Determinants

Depressive symptoms

• @drentea2015:
  • Adults in current debt or in economic hardship have directly more depressive symptoms relative to their counterparts
  • The indirect effect is a mediation by mastery (items about level of resilience and control)

Anxiety

• @drentea2015: adults in current debt or in economic hardship have directly more anxiety symptoms relative to their counterparts

Anger

• @drentea2015:
  • Adults in current debt or in economic hardship have directly more anger symptoms relative to their counterparts

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Outcomes

Depressive symptoms

• @lempers1989 found that economic hardship:
  • Directly increases depression and loneliness among adolescents
  • Increases depression and loneliness mediated by decreased parental nurturance
  • Increases depression and loneliness mediated by inconsistent parental discipline

Substance abuse

• @lempers1989: economic hardship only indirectly leads to substance abuse among adolescents, mediated by inconsistent parental discipline

Anxiety symptoms

• @marjanovic2013: economic hardship leads to increased anxiety symptoms (β=0.15) in undergraduate students, after controlling for financial well-being, income and financial threat

Violence

• @friedline2021 reviews many studies that report increased domestic violence as a result of economic hardship