Caregiver distress explains links between objective and subjective socioeconomic status and adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

Abstract

The United States is amid an unprecedented adolescent mental health crisis, and adolescents who experience socioeconomic disadvantage are at elevated risk for behavioral problems. Low socioeconomic status (SES) is related to parent distress and is one potential pathway through which disadvantage relates to adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. Empirical support for this pathway is typically based on a single measure of objective SES considered in isolation. However, parents' subjective social status (SSS) also predicts their distress and may, in turn, shape adolescents' problem behaviors. We examine how multiple objective (annual income, monthly income volatility, and educational attainment) and subjective (SSS) markers of SES independently relate to adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems through parent distress using data from 104 parent-adolescent dyads. In mixed-effects models, we observed positive indirect effects of income volatility (within-dyad variation in monthly income) and parent SSS on adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms through parent distress. Gains in monthly income and greater SSS predicted decreased parent distress, which in turn related to fewer adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Indirect effects were independent of annual income, educational attainment, and covariates (marital status, adolescent race, sex, SSS). These findings highlight that temporally (income volatility) and psychologically proximal (parent SSS) aspects of SES may serve as points for intervention to reduce parent distress and support adolescent mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).