Despite a growing focus on the consequences of youth indebtedness, surprisingly little research has investigated cohort differences in credit use and debt burdens in the early young adult years. Nearly all debt research focuses on historical trends in debt across the entire population and does not consider that young adulthood may differ from other stages of the life course (Campbell and Hercowitz 2009, 2010; Maki 2002)
Families’ economic circumstances play a vital role in the quality and stability of intimate relationships, such that stress processes affect the health of individuals and family units (Papp, Cummings, and Goeke-Morey 2009)