Expanding this idea, Conger and colleagues identified economic stress as a particularly potent catalyst for a variety of family problems — problems that contribute to emotional and behavioral maladjustment in children, primarily via the effect of stress on parents and the interparental relationship. In a series of studies involving Iowa farm families who experienced severe income loss, Conger and colleagues developed the “Family Stress Model”17-18 whereby low family income and negative financial events lead to economic pressure (stress) in the family 19, spawning parental distress and interparental conflict, both of which lead to parenting problems. Ultimately, these parenting problems and the spillover of interparental conflict and parental depression compromised children’s psychological functioning 20-21. Thus, Conger and colleagues have demonstrated a causal pathway by which PRS (e.g., economic pressure) disrupts family relationships and contributes to psychological problems for adults and eventually, their children.
Her basic research program has led to the development of preventive interventions for families and children in poverty focused on strengthening both the family’s ability to stay strong in the face of hardship and the ability of parents and their children to cope effectively with poverty’s stress. Martha has served as the chair of APA’s Committee on Socioeconomic Status and she is currently an APA Council Representative for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (Div 53 of APA).