Exploring the Roles of Support and Neighborhood Trust in Modifying the Association of Parenthood and Marital Status with Stress

I-Chien Chen, Michigan State University

Little research on parenthood and health has simultaneously considered individual marital status, social support, and neighborhood trust perception in the analysis. Using parenthood (having children under 18 at home) and marital status (married with partner presence, married without partner presence, and single), we categorized parenthood/marital status into six groups. The goal is to answer the following questions: (1) Does individual stress differ by the six groups? (2) If yes, do individual perceptions of social support and trust from neighbors modify the association between parenthood/marital status contexts and stress? (3) Do residential social conditions play a role in understanding this association? The hierarchical modeling results suggests that people who are single with minor children at home report the highest stress, individual’s perceptions of social support and trust from neighbors partially account for the relationships between stress and the parenthood/marital status groups, and the role of social conditions is limited.