Financial Strain, Parenting Behaviors, and Adolescents' Achievement: Testing Model Equivalence between African American and European American Single- and Two-Parent Families

This study tested the equivalence of a theoretical model of parenting behaviors linking financial strain to adolescents' achievement for African American and European American families and for single‐ and two‐parent families. The sample included an economic cross‐section of African American (n = 387) and European American families (n = 230) from single‐ (n = 171) and two‐parent (n = 446) homes. Multi‐group analyses revealed no significant differences in the structural equation models between the African American and European American families, or between the single‐ and two‐parent families. Results demonstrated that negative parent–adolescent relationships and parental school involvement mediated the relation between financial strain and adolescents' academic achievement.