Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/yvjrdcqw0y
THE RELATIONSHIP OF CHILDREN’S AND PARENTS’ EXPERIENCE OF ECONOMIC PRESSURE WITH CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING
Marina Merkaš
orcid.org/0000-0003-1769-7273
; Hrvatsko katoličko sveučilište, Odjel za psihologiju
Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between children’s
and parents’ experiences of economic pressure and children’s well-being. The
paper empirically examines the extent to which children’s experiences of economic
pressure directly, along with parental experiences of economic pressure,
and controlling for family income and parental education, contribute to the explanation
of the level of hope, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in children. The
participants in the study were children and both of their parents who participated
in a short-term, two-wave longitudinal study within the scientific project
“Parents’ work, family economic hardship and well-being of parents and children”.
The children assessed the economic pressure that the family is experiencing
due to economic hardship in the first measurement point, and their level
of hope, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in the second measurement point.
In the first measurement point, parents assessed the economic pressures they
feel when they must reduce their child’s expenses and provided information on
family income and their educational level. The results showed that children’s
and parents’ experiences of economic pressure were significantly and positively
correlated, and that children’s and parents’ experiences of economic pressure
measured in the first wave were significantly and negatively related with hope,
self-esteem, and life satisfaction of children measured in the second wave. Three
regression analyses, controlling for family income and parental education level,
showed that children’s experience of economic pressure was a significant and
negative predictor of hope, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in children, while
parental experience of economic pressure proved to be a significant and negative
predictor of children’s life satisfaction. In general, the results show that experience
of higher economic pressure in children and parents is related with
lower levels of well-being in children in adolescence.
Keywords
economic pressure; family; adolescence; well-being; longitudinal research.
Hrčak ID:
231097
URI
Publication date:
24.12.2019.
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