Families of austerity: benefit cutbacks and family stress in the UK.

Benefit cutbacks have been prominent after the Great Recession. The Family Economic Stress Model (FESM) theorizes how financial losses such as those spurred by cutbacks might adversely affect parental and child well-being. Yet, few links with policy have been established. We extend current knowledge...

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Publicado en:Social Forces Vol. 103; no. 3; pp. 970 - 992
Autores principales: Mari, Gabriele, Keizer, Renske
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Mar2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Mar2025
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      pub: Oxford University Press / USA
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        atl: Families of austerity: benefit cutbacks and family stress in the UK.
      aug:
        au:
          Mari, Gabriele
          Keizer, Renske
        affil: Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, 3062 PA, the Netherlands
      su:
        Income
        Economic models
        Public welfare
        Mental health
        Health care reform
      sug:
        subj:
          Income
          Economic models
          Public welfare
          Mental health
          Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians)
          Administration of Human Resource Programs (except Education, Public Health, and Veterans' Affairs Programs)
          Other Individual and Family Services
          Health and Welfare Funds
          Emergency and Other Relief Services
          Health care reform
      keyword:
        austerity
        family stress
        inequality/social stratification
        mental health
        welfare reform
        austerity
        family stress
        inequality/social stratification
        mental health
        welfare reform
      ab: Benefit cutbacks have been prominent after the Great Recession. The Family Economic Stress Model (FESM) theorizes how financial losses such as those spurred by cutbacks might adversely affect parental and child well-being. Yet, few links with policy have been established. We extend current knowledge by comprehensively assessing how benefits cutbacks may affect parents and their adolescent children. We rely on the first ten waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2019) and an event-study approach to examine the aftermath of an exceptional raft of benefit cutbacks. We find that mothers with lower incomes and single mothers accumulated losses equal to 20–30 percent of their household benefit income. Mothers could not fully compensate for such benefit income losses via their extra earnings, despite increased workforce participation. Financial worries, some forms of material hardship, and mental health worsened among mothers with lower incomes and single mothers exposed to cutbacks. Adolescent socio-emotional difficulties also increased in the period. We find little evidence, though, that cutbacks disrupted parenting. Parents thus display more agency than that accorded by the FESM. Nonetheless, findings point to deepening socioeconomic divides in financial and mental well-being, questioning the rationale for cutbacks.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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