Inability to meet one’s financial responsibilities (@kim2006)
Underlying events or conditions that lead to financial stress (@mahdzan2019)
Cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses to financial hardship (@aldana1998)
Negative psychological and emotional responses due to insufficient resources to deal with a real or perceived threat to one’s standard of living/finances (@rosso2024)
Individual’s subjective perception of the financial situation (@ryu2023)
Measure of the balance of income to the need (@szanton2010)
Perceptual measure of one’s financial situation, regardless of the actual resources available (@wilkinson2016)
Perceived economic stress and lack of economic support (@adams2016)
Not having enough money to make meets end (@kahn2006)
As a synonym of financial pressure, degree to which research participants report that they have to postpone household necessities, reduce their standard of living, borrow to pay monthly bills (@davis2004)
@wilkinson2016: advocate its role on positing the importance of individual perceptions for life course inequality, and that exposure to disadvantage leads to further disadvantage
@kahn2006: suggests stressors capable of affecting well-being are accompanied by marriage, children education, and work-related trials and tribulations
@kahn2006: is useful to explain the progressive load of stressors, which generate a wear and tear on the individual that diminish his resistance to health-damaging events
Financial strain predicts increased depression symptoms (β=0.30), controlling for age, sex, education, marital status, urban residence and social network
This relationship was moderated by:
Received economic support from social network (β=0.07), which unexpectedly reinforced the negative effects
Anticipated economic support from social network (β=-0.07), which nerfed the negative effects
@samuel2025 showed consistently direction in association between financial strain and depression among 17 studies, suggesting increased financial strain as a predictor of depressive symptoms, incident and prevalent 3-year depression, post-partum depressive symptoms and cumulative 15-year depressive symptom burden
@marshall2021, controlling for demographic and socio-economic factos: food insecurity (RR=2.17), difficulty paying bills (RR=2.06), inability to buy medicines (RR=2.63), and medical debt (RR=1.43) were related with increased depressive symptoms
@davis2004 review showed studies consistently reported financial strain as a predictor of depression incidence
@szanton2010: financial strain (vs. no strain) on adulthood was related to increased depressive symptoms (b=1.21)
@wilkinson2016: controlling for demographic and socio-economic factors, increases to financial strain between 2006-2011 augmented depression (β=0.14)
@kahn2006: increased financial strain is related to increased depressive symptoms (β=0.08)
Anxiety symptoms
@marshall2021, controlling for demographic and socio-economic factors: food insecurity (RR=1.94), difficulty paying bills (RR=1.46), inability to buy medicines (RR=1.55), and medical debt (RR=1.20) were related with increased anxiety symptoms, except for credit card debt (RR=1.46)
@wilkinson2016: controlling for demographic and socio-economic factors, increases to financial strain between 2006-2011 led to increased symptoms of anxiety (β=0.06)
Self-esteem
@vandijk2022: financial problems led to impaired self-esteem only if mediated by perceived financial scarcity (β=-0.26)
Perceived financial strain led to decreased mental health (β=-0.35), controlled by education, gender, self-efficacy, social network and collective purpose
This relationship was moderated by:
Self-efficacy (β=0.25), which nerfed the negative effects
Social contacts (β=-0.34), which unexpectedly buffered the negative effects
Collective purpose (β=0.22), which nerfs the negative effects
@samuel2025 reviewed 12 longitudinal studies consistently reporting the negative effect of financial strain on mental health facets, such as emotional lability, psychological distress, suicidal ideation, subjective well-being, self-rated mental health, perceived stress, intimate partner emotional violence and parent stress reactions
@adams2016: while controlling for first-generation status, financial strain lead to increased psychological symptoms if mediated by perceived stress (β=-0.12)
Financial problems led to impaired mental health (β=-0.33)
This relationship was mediated by perceived financial scarcity (β=-0.21)
Academic and social integration
@adams2016 found that, controlling for first-generation status, financial strain lead to decreased academic and social integration (β=-0.12)
Substance abuse
@samuel2025 review compiled 9 longitudinal studies consistently reporting that financial strain increases substance abuse, including general drug abuse, cocaine, illicit sedatives, drug addiction, problematic drinking behavior, electronic nicotine delivery and smoking, while decreasing odds of abstinence
@prentice2017: higher levels of financial strain predicted a greater tendency for heavy drinking (β=0.11) over two years
Cognition
@samuel2025 review showed 9 longitudinal cohorts that financial strain impaired cognitive function, particularly leading to: faster 12-year cognitive decline, 5-year cognitive impairment in couples; increased incident 6 and 11-year dementia; poorer general memory, verbal episodic and subjective memory
@szanton2010: childhood financial strain (vs. no strain) was related to decreased cognition scores in adulthood (b=-1.53)
Inflammatory markers
@samuel2025 reported 2 longitudinal studies supporting the effect of financial strain on higher levels of C-reactive protein
Financial problems led to decreased life satisfaction (β=-0.47)
This relationship was moderated by perceived financial scarcity (β=-0.15)
@davis2004 review compiled studies suggesting decreased satisfaction with marriage among couples who suffer financial stress
Psychological well-being
@artazcoz2021: financial strain increased odds of poor psychological well-being, adjusted for sociodemographic factors; stratified by gender: men (OR=3.05), woman (OR=2.75)
@weich1998: higher levels of financial strain (vs. living comfortably) was related to increased risk of onset (OR=1.57) and 1-year maintenance (OR=1.86) of common mental disorders, adjusted for age, sex, social class and potential confounders
Physical health
@artazcoz2021: financial strain increased odds of poor self-reported health status, adjusted for sociodemographic factors; stratified by gender: men (OR=2.22), woman (OR=2.97)
@prentice2017 showed financial strain predicted self-report of health over two years:
The direct effect (β=-0.09) of financial strain on reporting excellent/good health is large
The indirect effect (β=-0.005) was mediated by being overweight (β=-0.002), smoking (β=-0.0015) and heavy drinking (β=-0.0015)
@szanton2010: adulthood financial strain (vs. no strain) was related to decreased activities of daily life (OR=1.82)
@kahn2006: increased financial strain is related to current decreased health outcomes:
Decreased self-rated health (β=-0.32)
Increased illness symptoms (β=0.19)
Increased functional impairment (β=0.34)
Financial behavior
@prentice2017 demonstrated financial strain predicted poor financial behavior over two years:
Strongly increased perceived difficulty of controlling expenditure (β=0.17)
Moderately increased preference for spending disposable income (β=0.06)
Mildly increased preference for larger time horizons when it comes to planning expenditures (β=0.04)
Children well-being
@davis2004 review pointed out children of financially stressed parents have significantly lower well-being (mental health problems, low self-esteem, and substance abuse)
