TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gibbons, Ryan Alberto
A1  - Layte, Richard
T1  - The effect of financial strain and parental depression on child behavioral difficulties during the Great Recession in Ireland: A fixed effects analysis
Y1  - 2026/07/10
JF  - Demographic Research
JO  - Demographic Research
SN  - 1435-9871
SP  - 73
EP  - 112
DO  - 10.4054/DemRes.2026.55.3
VL  - 55
IS  - 3
UR  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol55/3/
L1  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol55/3/55-3.pdf
L2  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol55/3/55-3.pdf
L3  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol55/3/files/readme.55-3.txt
L3  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol55/3/files/demographic-research.55-3.zip
N2  - Background: Research has long identified class differences in the development of child behavioral difficulties; however, adjudicating between competing subcultural and resource-based explanations has been problematic because of the difficulty in separating mechanisms from pre-existing risk factors. 

Objective: We use variation in financial strain, experienced by households in Ireland during the Great Recession, to examine whether stable subcultural characteristics or dynamic resources best accounted for differences in child behavioral difficulties. 

Methods: This paper uses hybrid ‘between–within’ models to disentangle the effects of financial strain from existing class differences in determining child behavioral difficulties, using longitudinal data from Cohort98 of the Growing Up in Ireland study (N = 6,039; 51.2% female; ages 9–17) compiled before, during, and after the Great Recession in Ireland. 

Results: Analysis indicates that class differences in child behavioral difficulties are largely accounted for after adjusting for mean financial strain and parental depression. Change in financial strain is associated with increased internalized and externalized behavioral difficulties in both boys and girls. 

Contribution: Our findings militate against a purely subcultural understanding of class differences in child behavioral difficulties, given subcultural values are argued to be independent of changes in resources. By contrast, support is found for a resource-based explanation, with increasing financial strain associated with higher levels of behavioral difficulties. 

ER  -