Family and Economic Stress

The Smith family is undergoing significant economic stress. I believe that this kind of
stress is likely to lead to family violence. Benokraitis (409) notes that difficult economic
conditions and stress are major contributors to family violence. For instance, cases of domestic
violence involving either spousal or child abuse increased significantly in late 2008 when many
parents began losing their jobs due to Great Recession. Pattavina, Socia & Zuber (155) also hold
that families that are threatened with events that may significantly reduce their financial status
such as loss of home are at higher risk of experiencing family violence because of stress such
crises trigger. Thus, with Jeanne jobless and Ray’s business facing unfavorable prospects, the
resulting stress is likely to lead to domestic violence.
In the case of Smith’s family, the family violence manifested itself as physical abuse.
Benokraitis (395) describes physical abuse as involving, among other things, throwing objects
around even if the objects do not hit any family member. In the case of Ray, he threw his dinner
when he exploded with rage at his children’s request for money. The explosion with rage and
throwing of his dinner may be considered ‘minor’ because he did not hurt anyone. However,
Benokraitis (401) describes such acts as constituting phase one of domestic abuse. This is the
phase when tension builds in the house (Benokraitis 401). Unless Ray finds help with his
financial stress, his frustrations may result in phase two of domestic violence. This phase
involves actual beating of wife (Benokraitis 401). He may also start physically abusing the
children.
To avoid such terrible outcomes, it is important that Roy and Jeanne find a way of
managing their stress induced by the financial problems that they are going through at the
moment. There are multiple ways in which the family can cope with their stress. One of them is
through letting every family (including children) know about the crisis (Falconier, Randall &
Bodenmann 17). Ray has kept his financial worries to himself. He has not bothered sharing them
with Jeanne, his wife, because he feels that she has enough stress of her own. Both Ray and
Jeanne have kept their children from knowing about the financial crisis that they are going
through. To better cope with the stress Ray needs to inform Jeanne about his worries and both of
them need to let their children know about their financial situation. Had the children been aware
of their parents financial problems, they are unlikely to have made the kind of demands that they
made and which resulted in Ray exploding at the dinner table. Additionally, the family should
consider seeking the services of a financial advisor. The advisor will help Ray manage his
current income in a manner that allows him to effectively meet the needs of his family during
these difficult times.

Surname 2
Secondly, the family could find ways of using government programs to help alleviate
their situation. In particular, they could use the Affordable Care Act to help them continue
having health insurance after their current COBRA insurance runs out in one and a half year’s
time. The thought of having to start paying expensive health insurance premiums after the
running out COBRA cover is one of the causes of Ray’s stress. However, with Affordable Care
Act, he should not be worried a lot because he can change to Marketplace plan which will allow
him to have smaller premiums and savings on both copayments and deductibles (Affordable
Care Act).

Surname 3

Works Cited

Affordable Care Act. “COBRA coverage and the marketplace”. Healthcare.gov.
https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/cobra-coverage/
Benokraitis, Nijole Vaicaitis. Marriages and families: Changes, choices, and constraints. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2015.
Falconier, Mariana K., Ashley K. Randall, and Guy Bodenmann, eds. Couples coping with
stress: A cross-cultural perspective. Routledge, 2016.
Pattavina, April, Kelly M. Socia, and Malgorzata J. Zuber. “Economic stress and domestic
violence: examining the impact of mortgage foreclosures on incidents reported to the
police.” Justice research and policy 16.2 (2015): 147-164.