Beliefs About Money in Families: Balancing Unity, Autonomy, and Gender Equality

Addo F.R.

Despite increasing rates of pre-marital cohabitation, the majority of research on household financial practices in the United States has focused on married couples. This study explored ways young adult cohabiters (N = 691) financially combined their lives and the associations with subsequent relationship outcomes. Results indicated cohabiters were intertwining credit histories and bank accounts, and acquiring assets such as purchasing homes together. Sharing a mortgage was associated with an increased likelihood of marriage, whereas joint credit card accounts increased the odds of dissolution. Cohabiters with an intent to marry were much more likely to start integrating their finances prior to marriage. This study sheds light on the heterogeneous ways that a recent cohort of young adult couples manages their finances and navigates relationships.

Copp J.E., Giordano P.C., Manning W.D., Longmore M.A.

Family scholars have demonstrated that economic conditions influence marital quality and relationship instability. Similarly, researchers have identified low income and poverty as important risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet limited work has examined how economic factors influence the use of violence in the romantic context, particularly during young adulthood. Using the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (n = 928), we examine the influence of economic and career concerns as specific sources of conflict on IPV among a sample of young adults. Findings suggest that these areas of disagreement within romantic relationships are associated with IPV risk, net of traditional predictors. We discuss the implications of our findings for intervention and prevention efforts.

Munsch C.L.

Recent years have seen great interest in the relationship between relative earnings and marital outcomes. Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I examine the effect of relative earnings on infidelity, a marital outcome that has received little attention. Theories of social exchange predict that the greater one’s relative income, the more likely one will be to engage in infidelity. Yet, emerging literature raises questions about the utility of gender-neutral exchange approaches, particularly when men are economically dependent and women are breadwinners. I find that, for men, breadwinning increases infidelity. For women, breadwinning decreases infidelity. I argue that by remaining faithful, breadwinning women neutralize their gender deviance and keep potentially strained relationships intact. I also find that, for both men and women, economic dependency is associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in infidelity; but, the influence of dependency on men’s infidelity is greater than the influence of dependency on women’s infidelity. For economically dependent persons, infidelity may be an attempt to restore relationship equity; however, for men, dependence may be particularly threatening. Infidelity may allow economically dependent men to engage in compensatory behavior while simultaneously distancing themselves from breadwinning spouses.

Bertrand M., Kamenica E., Pan J.

Abstract We examine causes and consequences of relative income within households. We show that the distribution of the share of income earned by the wife exhibits a sharp drop to the right of 12 , where the wife’s income exceeds the husband’s income. We argue that this pattern is best explained by gender identity norms, which induce an aversion to a situation where the wife earns more than her husband. We present evidence that this aversion also impacts marriage formation, the wife’s labor force participation, the wife’s income conditional on working, marriage satisfaction, likelihood of divorce, and the division of home production. Within marriage markets, when a randomly chosen woman becomes more likely to earn more than a randomly chosen man, marriage rates decline. In couples where the wife’s potential income is likely to exceed the husband’s, the wife is less likely to be in the labor force and earns less than her potential if she does work. In couples where the wife earns more than the husband, the wife spends more time on household chores; moreover, those couples are less satisfied with their marriage and are more likely to divorce. These patterns hold both cross-sectionally and within couples over time.

Pedulla D.S., Thébaud S.

Why has progress toward gender equality in the workplace and at home stalled in recent decades? A growing body of scholarship suggests that persistently gendered workplace norms and policies limit men’s and women’s ability to create gender egalitarian relationships at home. In this article, we build on and extend prior research by examining the extent to which institutional constraints, including workplace policies, affect young, unmarried men’s and women’s preferences for their future work-family arrangements. We also examine how these effects vary across education levels. Drawing on original survey-experimental data, we ask respondents how they would like to structure their future relationships while experimentally manipulating the degree of institutional constraint under which they state their preferences. Two clear patterns emerge. First, as constraints are removed and men and women can opt for an egalitarian relationship, the majority choose this option, regardless of gender or education level. Second, women’s relationship structure preferences are more responsive than men’s to the removal of institutional constraints through supportive work-family policy interventions. These findings shed light on important questions about the role of institutions in shaping work-family preferences, underscoring the notion that seemingly gender-traditional work-family decisions are largely contingent on the constraints of current workplaces.

Addo F.R.

Abstract Despite growing evidence that debt influences pivotal life events in early and young adulthood, the role of debt in the familial lives of young adults has received relatively little attention. Using data from the NLSY 1997 cohort (N = 6,749) and a discrete-time competing risks hazard model framework, I test whether the transition to first union is influenced by a young adult’s credit card and education loan debt above and beyond traditional educational and labor market characteristics. I find that credit card debt is positively associated with cohabitation for men and women, and that women with education loan debt are more likely than women without such debt to delay marriage and transition into cohabitation. Single life may be difficult to afford, but marital life is unaffordable as well. Cohabitation presents an alternative to single life, but not necessarily a marital substitute for these young adults.

Hamplová D., Le Bourdais C., Lapierre-Adamcyk É.

Numerous studies have shown that cohabitors are less likely to pool their money than married couples. The authors raise the question of whether the marriage–cohabitation gap in money pooling varies according to the level of institutionalization of cohabitation in the society. They compared 2 Canadian regions with very different demographic regimes. The francophone province Québec has the highest proportion of cohabiting couples in the world, whereas the levels of cohabitation are moderate in other Canadian provinces. Moreover, the 2 regions differ in their legal systems (civil code vs. common law) and legal regulation of cohabitation. Using data from the Canadian 2011 General Social Survey (N = 9,852), the authors found that cohabitors in both regions are less likely to pool their money together. Nevertheless, they did not confirm the hypothesis that the marriage–cohabitation gap is smaller in Québec despite the higher levels of institutionalization of cohabitation in this region.

Yodanis C., Lauer S.

We address an idea in the study of families that is growing in acceptance—marriage today is individualized. Using a new institutional perspective, we review the literature to evaluate whether marriage is actually individualized. We discuss the commonly used indicators of individualization, questioning some of the key indicators and calling for a greater focus on the examination of actual behaviors of married spouses. We also review the empirical evidence for individualized marriage. We conclude that more attention should be paid to data showing that the majority of spouses engage in interdependent and integrated behaviors and that trends are not clearly in a trajectory toward individualization. Institutions, including formal and informal rules and taken-for-granted assumptions, do not change easily.

DiMaggio P.

Cerulo K.A.

This article offers reflections on Jerolmack and Khan’s article “Talk is Cheap: Ethnography and the Attitudinal Fallacy.” Specifically, I offer three suggestions aimed at moderating the authors’ critique. Since the sociology of culture and cognition is my area of expertise, I, like Jerolmack and Khan, use this literature to mine supporting examples.

Vaisey S.

BENNETT F., SUNG S.

AbstractThe ‘unitary household’ lives on in policymakers’ assumptions about couples sharing their finances. Yet financial autonomy is seen as a key issue in gender relations, particularly for women. This article draws on evidence from semi-structured individual interviews with men and women in thirty low-/moderate-income couples in Britain. The interviews explored whether financial autonomy had any meaning to these individuals; and, if so, to what extent this was gendered in the sense of there being differences in men's and women's understanding of it. We develop a framework for the investigation of financial autonomy, involving several dimensions: achieving economic independence, having privacy in one's financial affairs and exercising agency in relation to household and/or personal spending. We argue that financial autonomy is a relevant issue for low-/moderate-income couples, and that women are more conscious of tensions between financial togetherness and autonomy due to their greater responsibility for managing togetherness and lower likelihood of achieving financial independence. Policymakers should therefore not discount the aspirations of women in particular for financial autonomy, even in low-/moderate-income couples where there remain significant obstacles to achieving this. Yet plans for welfare reform that rely on means testing and ignore intra-household dynamics in relation to family finances threaten to exacerbate these obstacles and reinforce a unitary family model.

Bennett F.

Research into intrahousehold finances challenges key assumptions about the as a unitary whole, investigates the extent of sharing within it, examines mechanisms of control and allocation of resources, and reveals the personalized nature of different monies. This article presents an overview of research on within-household distribution (understood as both outcome and process). It discusses major questions addressed, including inequalities between (gendered) individuals and the potential reasons for these. It outlines significant developments and debates, within qualitative research in particular, in relation to the unit of analysis (traditionally, the married couple), the texture and of financial dealings within couples, and the tensions between autonomy and equal sharing as values. It then discusses several key methodological challenges, and concludes by highlighting some policy implications of central research messages. Throughout, it draws on and discusses the other articles in this special section, which explore key methodological issues in researching within-household distribution.Key Words: decision making, equality, fairness, resource management, gender.Research on the material aspects of life is not easy because so much economic behaviour takes place (literally) behind closed doors. (Burgoyne, Clarke, Reibstein, & Edmunds, 2006, p. 619)As this quotation suggests, in relation to financial dealings within the the has often been seen as a ' 'black box' ' that it is not possible to investigate (Pahl, 1989, p. 4). More substantively, such investigation could be seen as unnecessary interference, because the is in any case a glued-together unit whose interests are as one (Sen, 1997, p. 371). Two further, more specific, assumptions tend to follow. First, members are assumed to benefit equally, or at least proportionally to their needs, from resources. Second, incomes are put together all in one pot (Sung & Bennett, 2007) for distribution, with no differentiation, and with any mechanisms of control or decision making remaining unexamined. These assumptions are applied in particular to coresident members-the family household (Haddad, Hoddinott, & Alderman, 1997). A third, additional assumption relates to the nature of money, which may be viewed as an essentially neutral, and endlessly fungible, means of exchange within the as well as outside.An alternative body of thought on within-household distribution, however, has interrogated each of these three assumptions and found them wanting. First, while acknowledging that people can derive various benefits from living together (Himmelweit & Santos, 2009), it is argued that, because of the unequal positions of individuals in households, some sharing of Department of Social Policy and Intervention, 32Wellington Square, Oxford 0X1 2ER, England(ifan.bennett@spi.ox.ac.uk).resources is often necessary-but may not itself be equal. Second, it is asserted that an allocation method must intervene between receipt of resources and their consumption, and that this should be scrutinized. Last, in relation to the nature of money, instead of this being neutral, researchers argue that it has meaning in varying contexts (Nyman, 2003; Singh, 1997; Zelizer, 1994). As Robeyns (2003) argued, for example, even if income were shared completely, it is problematic to assume that it does not matter in a well-being assessment whether a person has earned this money herself, or obtained it from her partner (p. 65). Money is thus a social and ideological, not just an economic, medium of exchange (Pahl, 1989). Personalized monies in particular, such as those from a spouse, can carry expectations about future behavior (Hallerod, Diaz, & Stocks, 2007, pp. 144 - 147) and be laden with meaning (Nyman, Reinikainen, & Stocks, 2013, this issue); money thus forms an integral part of the emotional economy of life (Goode, 2010). …

Bisdee D., Daly T., Price D.

As couples survive longer and live together into older age they face many issues of financial management, including daily money management on reduced and/or reducing income, and paying for care or the additional costs of disability. Yet household money management is highly gendered, especially for older age groups. This has implications for the ability of women, particularly, to manage financial decisions in the face of their partner's illness, or widowhood, as well as for their autonomy and well-being. We analyse in depth qualitative data from forty-five older couples across the socio-economic spectrum to show that women have varying emotional responses to money management in coupledom: ‘accepters’ who accept financial inequality and dominance by their husbands, ‘resenters’ who recognise these inequalities but resent them, and ‘modifiers/resisters’ who retain financial independence and power within their relationships. It is only the latter group, who have long histories of financial control and management, who are well placed for financial management and decisions in later life. By recognising the implications of different types of couple relationship, policies can be better designed to assist those navigating money in later life.

Mutz D.C.

Almog E., Herbst‐Debby A.

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigates the coping mechanisms and resilience of women who initiate divorce, with a focus on their development of autonomy post‐divorce.BackgroundLife after divorce is viewed as a transition period with new opportunities. This is particularly pertinent in Israel, a familistic, traditional society where family and marriage are centrally controlled by religious institutions.MethodA qualitative methodology involved semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 38 Israeli‐Jewish mothers (ages 25–70) who initiated divorce. Data analysis included identifying central motifs, creating a category tree, and using the Narrlarizer software to organize data.ResultsWomen described their challenging roles re‐independence and control within their families, with their narratives highlighting their shift towards becoming family leaders and perceiving themselves as experiencing greater autonomy.ConclusionWomen who initiate divorce act against societal norms, breaking through marital barriers to gain autonomy and control over their lives. This aligns with authentic behavior, emphasizing their strength and the reclamation of personal agency.ImplicationsOur research provides a nuanced perspective on women initiating divorce, recognizing their liberation from patriarchal norms and gains despite diverse struggles. It underscores opportunities for reshaping women's societal roles and self‐identity, presenting divorce initiation as an act of autonomy and resistance to gender oppression, and enriching discussions on women's experiences.

Pugliese M.

The aggregate household saving rate has declined in many nations since the 1980s, partly due to increased borrowing. To explain this puzzling trend, previous scholarship has focused on precarity, welfare state retrenchment, and financial development. Building on research describing marriage’s significance in shaping the capacity and the motivation to accumulate assets, my main contribution in this paper is to theorize that the retreat from this institution was another factor behind the dwindling of aggregate household savings. I also empirically explore this hypothesis using country-year macro data from 19 OECD countries between 1980 and 2014. After controlling for several of the major factors previous research shows contribute to the decline of savings, including interest rates and asset price growth, I find additional effects of declining marriage rates. I estimate that this factor explains between 14 and 32% of the fall in household savings. My argument and results do not suggest promoting marriage to bolster savings. Instead, they invite research on the precautionary strategies of unmarried people, how they may disrupt the role of private savings in contemporary economies, and how policies can adapt to support savings among diverse families. Importantly, this paper also calls for attention to the macroeconomic implications of family change, which remain understudied owing to the enduring traction of the “hostile worlds” view of the economy and intimacy.

Hsu C.

AbstractThis study uncovers Taiwanese dual‐earner couples' monetary practices and explores how the marriage institution is conceived of in the context of East Asian familism and the sweeping trend of individualism. Ample cross‐national research has investigated household finances and money management among couples over time, yielding mostly Western‐oriented insights. It is nevertheless matched with little evidence from East Asian societies that share similar trends of individualization. Drawing from interviews with 22 couples and 3 married individuals (N = 47) in Taiwan, who are at least university‐educated, middle‐class, and on average in their mid‐30s, this paper analyzes couples' monetary practices from a relationship constellation perspective that factors in resources from intergenerational transfer, as well as individual spouses' interpretation of their practices. Individualized management was found to be exceedingly prevalent among Taiwanese couples, unlike couples elsewhere that predominantly adopt pooling. Institutionalized individualization, on the one hand, posed higher hurdles for joint management and pooling. On the other, most interviewees showed an individualistic orientation in their practices, which can be seen as a strategy to anticipate and manage risks—marriage dissolution among others—in a highly uncertain world. Embedding monetary practices in the ‘individualization without individualism’ debate, this study unveils how the traditional marriage institution is implicitly challenged by not only increasing institutionalized individualization but also an ideational shift towards individualism, often assumed to not have taken root in East Asia. The empirical evidence from Taiwan sheds new light on both resource management in marriage and on how intimate relationships are constrained by institutional and socio‐cultural contexts.

Çineli B., González M.J.

AbstractObjectiveThe goal was to examine the conditions under which young adult women (aged 25–50) in heterosexual couples maintain their economic independence through a personal bank account.BackgroundResearch has shown that in Spain, the pooling of economic resources is seen as an important aspect of being a couple and as a symbol of togetherness. However, in practice, joint management can be characterized by inequalities on several levels, such as access to money, control over money, and personal spending. Few studies have focused on household financial organization in Spain, and studies of women's financial autonomy are lacking.MethodWe conducted a cross‐sectional analysis of couples aged 25–50 in Spain (N = 1,281) using data from the 2020 National Survey on Family Life.ResultsThe findings reveal that women are significantly less likely to have a personal bank account if either partner does not endorse values of economic autonomy, the couple is married with children, or, if the male partner earns significantly more.ConclusionThe results suggest that there is still a long way to go for Spain to reach the levels of women's account ownership seen in countries such as those in Northern Europe. It is important to incorporate women's account ownership into the investigation of financial organization, given its substantial implications for women within couples and those navigating relationship dissolution.ImplicationsGovernment programs should promote women's account ownership. Also, policies targeting financial literacy can incorporate dimensions such as basic budgeting, saving, and debt management so that women can gain further financial skills.

Subramanian R., Arjun T.P., Ashique Ali K.A.

Frey V., Thomas J., Alajääskö L.

AbstractReflecting their weaker labour force attachment and lower earnings, women consistently report feeling greater economic insecurity than men across the Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). Similar gender gaps emerge in perceptions of social protection systems: women are far less confident than men in their ability to access benefits and services and receive adequate income support when they need it, both in working age and old age. Results from the cross‐national OECD Risks that Matter (RTM) Survey illustrate that, on average, across countries, about half of women feel that they could not easily receive public benefits if they needed them, compared to 43 per cent of men. This perceived inaccessibility likely reflects gender gaps in perceived “hassle costs” associated with social programme applications and the intra‐household allocations of administrative burden, but it also likely reflects women’s lower social security contributions. This article illuminates gender gaps in the design of social programmes and suggests ways by which governments can better mainstream gender when improving the accessibility and adequacy of social protection.

Raab M., Schulz F.

This visualization illustrates patterns of income pooling among German couples using longitudinal data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), examining variations across cohorts born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and among different partnership types. The findings reveal that marriage is much more strongly associated with income pooling than cohabitation or living-apart-together arrangements. A generational shift is evident: Younger cohorts are less likely to pool finances, even within marriage. The visualization suggests increasing financial independence in intimate relationships over cohorts, reflecting broader societal shifts toward individualism.

Doan L., Quadlin N., Khanna K.

AbstractSocial scientists increasingly are using experiments to examine causal processes and mechanisms in their research. Yet, experiments work much better for some research aims than others. Some goals that are of great interest to family scholars, such as testing theoretical arguments, are well‐suited to experimental approaches; other goals, such as documenting real‐world experiences, may be best served by another research design. Our aim in this article is to discuss the power and limits of experimental methods for the study of family, with an emphasis on describing the types of topics and approaches that work best in an experimental framework. We begin by briefly reviewing the current state of the literature and the types of experiments that are commonly used to study families and intimate relationships. We discuss recent examples and “best practices” to illustrate the potential strengths of experiments for the study of family. After walking through an in‐depth example of an experimental research design, we describe some unresolved theoretical puzzles in the family literature from the previous mid‐decade review that seem ripe for experimental study. In doing so, we demonstrate that experiments, when used appropriately, can provide powerful evidence of causal mechanisms that resonate with scholarly audiences and the public.

Ponce A.

AbstractThis article conceptualizes invested mothering to explain how mothers typically serve as both primary caregivers and financial providers under court-mandated shared parenting. A line of feminist literature has conceptualized hegemonic expectations of women’s caregiving through the umbrella theory of intensive mothering, and family scholars have studied how these ideologies influence parental investments in children. I assert that more research is necessary at the juncture of this scholarship, especially in contemporary family forms which reflect most parents’ reality. In this study, I analyze 46 in-depth interviews with parents under state-mandated child support arrangements as an empirical case of shared parenting experiences. I show that the onus is on mothers to secure financial resources for children’s basic and enrichment needs through relational, paid, and invisible work strategies—mothers enact invested mothering. An intersectional analysis reveals the distinct invested parenting work that mothers, especially low-income Black mothers who are the most disadvantaged, perform as adaptive strategies in the face of interlocking sexism, systemic racism, and historical economic inequality. Overall, mothers’ financial role as primary breadwinners is feminized as their contributions are unsupported, unacknowledged, and undervalued by both the courts and fathers.

Sorgente A., Lanz M., Tagliabue S., Wilmarth M.J., Archuleta K.L., Yorgason J., James S.

The relationship between an individual’s financial behavior and financial satisfaction is well known. Less evidence is available about how these two constructs interplay within couples. This considered, the current paper aims to (a) examine whether individuals’ financial satisfaction is influenced by their own financial behavior (actor effect) and their partner’s financial behavior (partner effect); (b) examine whether these two effects vary between husbands and wives; and (c) verify how couples’ bank account status (i.e., only joint bank accounts, only separate bank accounts, both joint and separate bank accounts) moderate these effects. The current study draws 1,475 heterosexual early married couples from Couple Relationships and Transition Experiences study and modeled dyadic data through an Actor Partner Interdependence Model. Results indicate that actor’s financial behavior is associated only with one’s own financial satisfaction (actor effect) and not one’s partner’s financial satisfaction (partner effect). This holds for both wives and husbands. Furthermore, individuals who hold only joint bank account(s) are more likely to have financial behaviors similar to their partner than individuals who hold only separate bank accounts or both joint and separate accounts. Couples who hold only separate accounts are more likely to engage in less positive financial behavior than their counterparts. Implications for relationship therapists and financial professionals are discussed.

Hevenstone D., Kessler D., Luchsinger L.

abstract The ‘Added Worker Effect’ (AWE) theory posits that partners of the unemployed provide intra-household insurance by increasing their earnings. However, estimates of the AWE are small. Popular explanations include lacking need (e.g. due to generous unemployment benefits), capacity or willingness to increase earnings, though these explanations are seldom tested systematically. Using Swiss administrative data and difference-in-differences estimates, we find an overall AWE among only non-working women. We find no systematic differences in AWEs between couples with differing needs or capacities, but aspects related to willingness like marriage, long marital duration and shared biological children are associated with higher AWEs. Men’s overall slight reduction in earnings upon their partners’ unemployment is driven by young, childless, cohabiting men. Overall, compared to unemployment insurance, in all studied subgroups, the AWE is a minimal source of insurance.

Lipovka A., Yerimpasheva A., Rakhimbekova Z., Zakirova A.

This article aims at determining the influence of power distribution within families on women’s views of politicians. The work represents the first cross-cultural study of gender stereotypes about political leaders embracing post-socialist Central Asian and Central European countries. The responses of 6,869 women to the Life in Transition Survey III were analyzed using a quantitative research study. A multivariate linear regression model and correlation coefficients allowed us to identify the relationship between patriarchal and patrilocal families with a high level of gender stereotypes and the impact of individual women's decisions on their lower bias. No positive effect of spouses’ mutual decisions on the level of gender stereotypes was revealed. The theoretical importance of the work lies in expanding the existing knowledge about the influence of family power on women’s internal beliefs, which broadens the understanding of the Western Role Congruity Theory in emerging economies.

Çineli B., Mugiyama R.

In Japan, differentiated gender expectations are strongly emphasized and Japanese wives shoulder the majority of the domestic work. Although previous research has examined the gendered division of paid and unpaid work in Japan, much less attention has been paid to household money management patterns among Japanese couples. Traditionally, Japanese women do the household financial organization, regardless of their employment status. Husbands transfer all of their income and other earnings to their wives and receive a monthly allowance as pocket money. We use data from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers (JPSC), 1994–2019 waves, to construct fixed-effect models to investigate how parenthood, wife’s employment and husband’s relative income are associated with different money management systems in Japan. Our findings show that parenthood is positively associated with female money management systems, whereas in dual-earner couples, women are less likely to manage household money. The results suggest that female money management in Japan is positioned as part of the package of wife / mother / homemaker roles and is a “female” task rather than “male”. The results also show that the applicability of Western money management typologies and theoretical frameworks is limited for the Japanese context.

Kruger M., Grable J.E., Palmer L., Goetz J.

The purpose of this study was to document factors associated with a couple’s decision to manage finances entirely jointly (i.e., pooled), somewhat jointly, or separately. Based on survey data from 636 married or cohabitating respondents, test results showed that married and less well-educated individuals are more likely to pool finances with their partners. Additionally, it was determined that the odds of partners pooling finances increase as the size of a household increases and when the household exhibits a positive net worth. In this study, households with two income earners were approximately 50% less likely to pool their finances compared to households with one income earner. It was further determined that those who reported agreeing on issues related to spending were more than twice as likely to pool their finances as compared to those who did not agree with their partner on issues related to spending. The findings from this study advance the marriage and family therapy literature by showing that financial integration style and financial decision-making responsibilities are separate constructs and should not be used as proxies for one another.

Eickmeyer K.J., Manning W.D., Longmore M.A., Giordano P.C.

Recent studies have highlighted persistent differentials in income pooling (whether couples combine their earnings or keep their money separate) between married and cohabiting couples. The theories guiding research on income pooling suggest that couples pool their incomes for a variety of reasons, including increasing interdependence and growing commitment, but it is also likely that couples pool their incomes to pay for intra-household needs and avoid financial difficulties and material hardship. Using the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (N = 517), we examined the associations between income pooling and measures of commitment and material hardship among married and cohabiting young adults (ages 22–29). Results show that increasing levels of commitment were associated with higher odds of completely income pooling, regardless of union status. Further, the odds of complete income pooling rose with increasing material hardship. However, the married-cohabiting gap in income pooling persisted after controlling for demographic factors, employment characteristics, and relationship characteristics: married young adults had significantly higher odds of income pooling than cohabiting young adults. Standardized estimates reveal that, although there are significant differences in commitment and material hardship between married and cohabiting young adults, these compositional differences do not drive the married-cohabiting income pooling gap. Instead, there are differences in role of commitment and material hardship for these young couples. Overall, results suggest that income pooling behavior is both an indicator of commitment and a strategy to manage economic hardship among married and cohabiting young adults in the U.S. These findings provide new insights into how young adults may navigate commitment and financial concerns within their intimate relationships.