COVID-19 Induced Economic Stress: The Effect on Marital Functioning and Methods of Alleviating Financial Stress

Desiree Rigaud

Starting from a young age, I had seen people in my life suffer as a result of domestic violence as well as seen and experienced firsthand the stress associated with financial instability. In 2020, the first case COVID-19 was reported in America, thus sparking the news to be flooded with stories of the toll this pandemic was taking on our well-being and the economy. Due to my understanding of the connection between relationship and economic instability from personal experiences, I became concerned about how the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic could affect marital relationships … For many individuals, being in debt and living paycheck to paycheck or based on future paychecks is their reality (Cecchetti et al., 2011). In 2020, the total credit card debt in the United States was $756 billion (“Credit Card Debt”, 2020). Additionally, household debt totaled $14.6 trillion at the end of 2020 (Cox, 2021). Historically, financial hardship has been exacerbated by extenuating circumstances like disease. An example of this is the SARS epidemic in 2002-2004 (Beutels et al., 2009). A similar economic crisis occurred in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unique non-economic circumstances result in economic crises by prohibiting travel, closing business, increasing unemployment, etc. (Borio, 2020). For example, during the pandemic, unemployment rates hit an estimated 16% (“Frequently asked questions”, 2020). Also in 2020, there were 764,282 bankruptcy filings in the United States and 473,349 more in the first four months of 2021 (“New Bankruptcy Filings”, 2021). These factors may lead to economic stress (Elder & Caspi, 1988) …