The Impact of Family Economic Strain On Work-Family Conflict, Marital Support, Marital Quality, and Marital Stability During the Middle Years

Over the past few decades, US families have been faced with several economic recessions. The regularity and severity of these economic crises lends to the importance of having an understanding of how these events affect families. The present study investigates the effects of family economic strain on marital quality and marital stability through individual and dyadic models, incorporating work-family conflict and marital support as mediators. The study analyzed secondary data from the Iowa Youth and Families Project (IYFP) and Midlife Transition Project (MTP) collected from 370 middle-aged married couples across a 12-year time period that encompassed the US early 1990s recession and the recession of 2001, which occurred between the years 1989 and 2001. The results support the hypotheses that the impact of economic strain upon marital quality and marital stability is mitigated through a positive perception of work-family conflict and marital support. Implications for future research and for financial practice are discussed.