Hope in Low-Income Families-A Study of Family Hardiness in Singapore

Objective To investigate whether family hardiness mediates the relationship between economic hardship and hope of mothers and children from low-income families. Background Economic hardship has been found to be associated with lower hope in adults. The ABC-X model suggests that the resources available could be a mediator of this relationship. However, there is a lack of studies investigating family-level hardiness as a potential mediator of this relationship in low-income families. Method Mother-child dyads (N = 512) from low-income families in Singapore were surveyed. Simple mediation was conducted to investigate family hardiness as a mediator between economic hardship and hope of mothers and children. Significant simple mediation results were followed up with parallel mediation, with family commitment, challenge, and control as mediators. Results Family challenge accounted for the mediation effect in mothers, whereas global family hardiness accounted for the mediation effect observed in children. Conclusion The inability of low-income families to adapt and reorganize their family system in response to their economic situation could account for lowered hope in mothers. Children's hope is affected by economic hardship through global family hardiness, possibly due to undifferentiated perception of the construct. Implications Interventions that build up family hardiness are recommended to practitioners.