Couple resilience to economic pressure

Over 400 married couples participated in a 3-year prospective study of econ omic pressure and marital relations. The research (a) empirically evaluated the family stress model of economic stress influences on marital distress and (b) extended the model to include specific interactional characteristic s of spouses hypothesized to protect against economic pressure. Findings pr ovided support for the basic mediational model, which proposes that economi c pressure increases risk for emotional distress, which, in turn, increases risk for marital conflict and subsequent marital distress. Regarding resil ience to economic stress, high marital support reduced the association betw een economic pressure and emotional distress. In addition, effective couple problem solving reduced the adverse influence of marital conflict on marit al distress. Overall, the findings provided substantial support for the ext ended family stress model.