Financial Stress and Coparenting Among Lower-Income Couples: A Dyadic Exploration

Economic challenges place lower-income, economically marginalized families at heightened risk for experiencing financial stress, which is associated with a host of adverse family outcomes. Among lower-income families raising young children, existing economic challenges are often exacerbated by the added needs of children, including child-specific expenses (e.g., childcare) and decreased parental earning capacity. In these families, financial stress may strain the coparenting alliance; however, scant research has explored the association, particularly in families with young infants. Informed by family systems theory and the family stress model, the present study utilized an actor–partner interdependence model to explore the relationship between financial stress and the quality of the coparenting alliance within a sample of 214 lower-income opposite-sex couples with or expecting a new baby. This study further examined potential differences between (a) mothers and fathers, (b) cohabiting and married parents, and (c) those in different parenting contexts (i.e., new vs. established parents, recent vs. anticipated births). Results indicated that mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of financial stress were negatively associated with their own report of coparenting alliance but not their partner’s coparenting alliance. This association was consistent across couple relationship structures and parenting contexts. Implications for policy and practices are provided.