Exploring the Relationship Between Assets and Family Stress Among Low-Income Families

The "hard times" resulting from the 2008 Great Recession represent an opportunity to reexamine the theoretical framework for how families use economic resources to manage stress. M. Sherraden's (1991) theory of assets and H. I. McCubbin and J. Patterson's (1983) family adjustment and adaptation response model informed this study of how assets relate to family demands among 839 low-income families. Structural equation modeling found that assets were directly related to a reduced sense of family demands and that assets were indirectly related to demands via economically stressful events. Findings suggest that social welfare policies that promote assets among low-income families may positively influence family relations. Future family research would benefit from measuring assets as economic resources and testing how assets affect family functioning.