Economic hardship and Mexican-origin adolescents’ adjustment: Examining adolescents’ perceptions of hardship and parent–adolescent relationship quality.

Abstract

Studies examining economic hardship consistently have linked family economic hardship to adolescent adjustment via parent and family functioning, but limited attention has been given to adolescents' perceptions of these processes. To address this, the authors investigated the intervening effects of adolescents' perceptions of economic hardship and of parent-adolescent warmth and conflict on the associations between parental economic hardship and adolescent adjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms, risky behaviors, and school performance) in a sample of 246 Mexican-origin families. Findings revealed that both mothers' and fathers' reports of economic hardship were positively related to adolescents' reports of economic hardship, which in turn, were negatively related to parent-adolescent warmth and positively related to parent-adolescent conflict with both mothers and fathers. Adolescents' perceptions of economic hardship were indirectly related to (a) depressive symptoms through warmth with mothers and conflict with mothers and fathers, (b) involvement in risky behaviors through conflict with mothers and fathers, and (c) GPA through conflict with fathers. Our findings highlight the importance of adolescents' perceptions of family economic hardship and relationships with mothers and fathers in predicting adolescent adjustment.