The amount of household debt tripled globally over the last decades and a sizable share of individuals and families are overindebted due to mortgages, credit cards, or consumer debt. Yet research on the distribution of debt across families, and potential ripple effects of the psychological burden related to debt on well-being and family relations, remains sparse. Our study aims to fill these gaps by examining the socio-demographic profiles of families that have accumulated household debt and the unique role that the psychological burden related to debt plays on associations between mothers’ well-being, parental dynamics, and child adjustment based on the Family Stress Model (FSM). We used representative survey data collected in 2019 from Germany (N = 3271), which is one of the richest economies worldwide, yet about 10% of adults reported to be overindebted. Logistic regression results showed that single mothers were less likely to have debt compared to mothers in two-parent families. However, both single mothers and mothers in stepfamilies with high levels of perceived economic strain were particularly likely to report having debt. Structural equation modeling yielded that the links between the psychological burden of debt, maternal well-being, parental dynamics, and child adjustment were largely in line with the FSM, except for single mothers. We conclude that persisting financial disparities by family structure may be partially fostered by unique characteristics of the German welfare state, such as promoting more a traditional two-parent norm, and discuss our findings in light of practical implications.

过去几十年来，全球家庭债务增加了两倍，相当一部分个人和家庭因抵押贷款、信用卡或消费者债务而负债累累。然而，关于家庭债务分配以及与债务相关的心理负担对福祉和家庭关系的潜在连锁反应的研究仍然很少。我们的研究旨在通过检查积累家庭债务的家庭的社会人口特征以及与债务相关的心理负担对母亲福祉、父母动态和儿童适应之间的关系所发挥的独特作用来填补这些空白。家庭压力模型（FSM）。我们使用了 2019 年从德国收集的代表性调查数据 ( N = 3271)，该国是全球最富裕的经济体之一，但据报告约有 10% 的成年人负债过多。逻辑回归结果显示，与双亲家庭的母亲相比，单亲母亲负债的可能性较小。然而，单亲母亲和经济压力较大的继家庭中的母亲特别有可能报告有债务。结构方程模型得出，债务心理负担、母亲幸福感、父母动态和儿童适应之间的联系在很大程度上与 FSM 一致，但单身母亲除外。我们的结论是，家庭结构持续存在的财务差异可能部分是由德国福利国家的独特特征造成的，例如提倡传统的双亲规范，并根据实际影响讨论了我们的发现。