Stress

Social stress research has repeatedly identified low income and income loss as a major social stressor (see for example, Elder 1974; McLloyd 1990). Given the importance of family income, and its links to both employment and family composition, researchers in the United States have sought to understand how economic circumstances and family formation and stability are linked. As Scott South and Kim Lloyd (1992) have documented, higher rates of male nonemployment have been shown to be associated with reduced marriage rates and higher rates of births to unmarried women for both African-American and white population groups. Women's economic resources also matter: Diane McLaughlin and Daniel Lichter (1999) comment that marriage can provide a route out of poverty for some, but find that poor women, especially those who do not hold jobs, are less likely to marry than are more advantaged women.

Marriages stressed by economic uncertainties have also been more likely to be disrupted. When financial pressures are high, husbands and wives treat each other more negatively, quarrel more, and feel increasingly distant; thoughts of divorce become more common. And as wives' greater employment and earnings prompt them to question disproportionate female responsibility for housework and childcare, conflict between partners is apt to increase. Donald Hernandez (1993) has found that married-couple families below the poverty level are more likely to disrupt their marriages than are couples who have greater economic resources. Among married couples, husbands' nonemployment increases the likelihood of marital disruption (South and Spitze 1986). This occurs in part because men react to employment loss and associated economic hardship with anger, irritability, and withdrawal from interaction (Conger et al. 1990).

Lower likelihood of marital formation and higher rates of marital disruption clearly affect children's life chances as well. In the absence of marriage or after its end, U.S. fathers have been relatively unlikely to share income or time with their biological children, and single-mother families are most vulnerable to economic problems.