Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify relationships between three indicators of socioeconomic status (SES)—parental education, Family Affluence Scale (FAS), and subjective household economic status—and adolescent health (self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation). Data from 69,196 students from 800 middle and high schools were analyzed. Relationships between the three SES indicators and adolescent health were examined using the chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis was then performed after adjusting for covariates. Female students whose parents had less education were more likely to report poor health than were those whose parents had a higher education. Low FAS scores were associated with higher odds ratios for poor self-rated health but not for depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation. In the logistic regression analysis, lower subjective household economic status significantly predicted poor self-rated health, higher levels of depressive symptoms, and more suicidal ideation. The findings suggest that subjective household economic status, rather than objective SES measures, is associated with adolescent health. Thus, future research about adolescent health should consider multiple dimensions of subjective social status of adolescents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acuña, E., & Rodriguez, C. (2004). The treatment of missing values and its effect on classifier accuracy. Classification, Clustering, and Data Mining Applications, 639–648.
Adler, N. E., Epel, E. S., Castellazzo, G., & Ickovics, J. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: preliminary data in healthy white women. Health Psychology. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.586.
Bae, J., Joung, H., Kim, J. Y., Kwon, K. N., Kim, Y. T., & Park, S. W. (2010). Test-retest reliability of a questionnaire for the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 43(5), 403–410.
Boyce, W., Torsheim, T., Currie, C., & Zambon, A. (2006). The Family Affluence Scale as a measure of national wealth: validation of an adolescent self-report measure. Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-005-1607-6.
Braveman, P. A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Williams, D., & Pamuk, E. (2010). Socioeconomic disparities in health in the United States: what the patterns tell us. American Journal of Public Health. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.166082.
Chen, E., Martin, A. D., & Matthews, K. A. (2006). Socioeconomic status and health: do gradients differ within childhood and adolescence? Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.08.054.
Cho, H., & Khang, Y. (2010). Family affluence scale, other socioeconomic position indicators, and self-rated health among South Korean adolescents: findings from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS). Journal of Public Health. doi:10.1007/s10389-009-0299-9.
Currie, C. E., Elton, R. A., Todd, J., & Platt, S. (1997). Indicators of socioeconomic status for adolescents: the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey. Health Education Research. doi:10.1093/her/12.3.385.
Currie, C., Roberts, C., Morgan, A., Smith, R., Settertobulte, W., Samdal, O., Rasmussen, V. B. (2004). Young people’s health in context. Health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study: International report from the 2001/2002 survey. Copenhagen WHO Regional Office for Europe. http://www.euro.who.int/document/e82923.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2012
Currie, C., Molcho, M., Boyce, W., Holstein, B., Torsheim, T., & Richter, M. (2008). Researching health inequalities in adolescents: the development of the health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) Family Affluence Scale. Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.024.
Dhossche, D., Ferdinand, R., van der Ende, J., Hofstra, M. B., & Verhulst, F. (2002). Diagnostic outcome of adolescent self-reported suicidal ideation at 8-year follow up. Journal of Affective Disorders. doi:10.1016/S0165-0327(01)00471-2.
Duarte-Salles, T., Pasarin, M. I., Borrell, C., Rodriguez-Sanz, M., Rajmil, L., Ferrer, M., et al. (2011). Social inequalities in health among adolescents in a large southern European city. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.2009.090100.
Due, P., Lynch, J., Holstein, B., & Modviq, J. (2003). Socioeconomic health inequalities among a nationally representative sample of Danish adolescents: the role of different types of social relations. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.57.9.692.
Galobardes, B., Shaw, M., Lawlor, D. A., Lynch, J. W., & Smith, G. (2006). Indicators of socioeconomic position (part 2). Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.028092.
Garbarski, D. (2010). Perceived social position and health: Is there a reciprocal relationship? Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.11.007.
Gong, Y., Zhang, L., Wang, Z., & Liang, Y. (2011). Pathway analysis of risk factors for severe suicidal ideation: a survey in rural China. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 102(6), 472–475.
Goodman, E., Adler, N. E., Kawachi, I., Frazier, L., Huang, B., & Colditz, G. A. (2001). Adolescents’ perception of social status: development and evaluation of a new indicator. Pediatrics. doi:10.1542/peds.108.2.e31.
Goodman, E., Huang, B., Schafer-Kalkhoff, T., & Adler, N. E. (2007). Perceived socioeconomic status: a new type of identity that influences adolescents’ self rated health. Journal of Adolescent Health. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.05.020.
Gwatkin, D. R., Rutstein, S., & Johnson, K. (2007). Socio-economic differences in health, nutrition, and population. Washington: The World Bank.
Hair, J. S., Black, B., Babin, B., Anderson, R. E., & Tanthm, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
Holstein, B., Currie, C., Boyce, W., Damsgaard, M. T., Gobina, I., Kokonyei, G., et al. (2009). Socio-economic inequality in multiple health complaints among adolescents: international comparative study in 37 countries. International Journal of Public Health. doi:10.1007/s00038-009-5418-4.
Iversen, A. C., & Holsen, I. (2008). Inequality in health, psychosocial resources and health behavior in early adolescence: the influence of different indicators of socioeconomic position. Child Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s12187-008-9015-5.
Karvonen, S., & Rahkonen, O. (2011). Subjective social status and health in young people. Sociology of Health & Illness. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9566.2010.01285.x.
Khang, Y. H., Cho, S. I., Yang, S., & Lee, M. S. (2005). Socioeconomic differentials in health and health related behaviors: finding from the Korea Youth Panel Survey. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 38, 391–400.
Kochuyt, T. (2004). Giving away one’s poverty. On the consumption of scarce resources within the family. The Sociological Review, 52, 139–161.
Kuh, D., & Ben-Schlomo, Y. (2004). A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Lien, N., Friestad, C., & Klepp, K. I. (2001). Adolescents’ proxy reports of parents’ socioeconomic status: how valid are they? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.55.10.731.
Lin, Y. C. (2011). Assessing the use of the Family Affluence Scale as socioeconomic indicators for researching health inequalities in Taiwan adolescents. Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-010-9683-7.
Liu, Y., Wang, M., Villberg, J., Torsheim, T., Tynjala, J., Lv, Y., & Kannas, L. (2012). Reliability and validity of Family Affluence Scale (FAS II) among adolescents in Beijing, China. Child Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s12187-011-9131-5.
Molcho, M., Nic Gabhainn, S., & Kelleher, C. (2007). Assessing the use of the Family Affluence Scale (FAS) among Irish schoolchildren. Irish Medical Journal, 100(8), 37–39.
OECD (2012). Education at a glance 2012: Country notes-Korea. http://www.oecd.org/korea/. Accessed 15 October 2012
Oh, I. H., Lee, G., Oh, C. M., Choi, K. S., Choe, B. K., Choi, J. M., et al. (2009). Association between the physical activity of Korean adolescents and socioeconomic status. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, 42(5), 305–314.
Olsson, E. (2007). The economic side of social relations: Household poverty, adolescents’ own resources and peer relations. European Sociological Review. doi:10.1093/esr/jcm016.
Operario, D., Adler, N. E., & Williams, D. R. (2004). Subjective social status: reliability and predictive utility for global health. Psychology & Health. doi:10.1080/08870440310001638098.
Piko, B. F., & Fitzpatrick, K. M. (2001). Does class matter? SES and psychosocial health among Hungarian adolescents. Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00379-8.
Piko, B. F., & Fitzpatrick, K. M. (2007). Socioeconomic status, psychosocial health and health behaviours among Hungarian adolescents. European Journal of Public Health. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl257.
Pueyo, M. J., Serra-Sutton, V., Alonso, J., Starfield, B., & Rajmil, L. (2007). Self-reported social class in adolescents: validity and relationship with gradients in self-reported health. BMC Health Service Research. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-7-151.
Schnohr, C. W., Kreiner, S., Due, E. P., Currie, C., Boyce, W., & Diderichsen, F. (2008). Differential item functioning of a Family Affluence Sacle: validation study on data from HBSC 2001/02. Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-007-9221-4.
Shrewsbury, V., & Wardle, J. (2008). Socioeconomic status and adiposity in childhood: a systematic review of cross-sectional studies 1990-2005. Obesity. doi:10.1038/oby.2007.35.
Singh-Manoux, A., Marmot, M. G., & Adler, N. E. (2005). Does subjective social status predict health and change in health status better than objective status? Psychosomatic Medicine. doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000188434.52941.a0.
Sorensen, C. W. (1994). Success and education in South Korea. Comparative Education Review, 38(1), 10–35.
Starfield, B., Riley, A. W., Witt, W. P., & Robertson, J. (2002). Social class gradients in health during adolescence. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.56.5.354.
Veselska, Z., Geckova, A. M., Gajdosova, B., Orosova, O., van Dijk, J. P., & Reijneveld, S. A. (2009). Socio-economic differences in self-esteem of adolescents influenced by personality, mental health and social support. European Journal of Public Health. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckp210.
von Rueden, U., Gosch, A., Rajmil, L., Biseqqer, C., & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2006). Socioeconomic determinants of health related quality of life in childhood and adolescence: results from a European study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.2005.039792.
Wardle, J., Robb, K., & Johnson, F. (2002). Assessing socioeconomic status in adolescents: the validity of a home affluence scale. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.56.8.595.
West, P., & Sweeting, H. (2004). Evidence on equalization in health in youth from the West of Scotland. Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.12.004.
Wolff, L. S., Acevedo-Garcia, D., Subramanian, S. V., Weber, D., & Kawachi, I. (2010). Subjective social status, a new measure in health disparities research: do race/ethnicity and choice of referent group matter? Journal of Health Psychology. doi:10.1177/1359105309354345.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for providing data from the 2009 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jeon, GS., Ha, Y. & Choi, E. Effects of Objective and Subjective Socioeconomic Status on Self-Rated Health, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents. Child Ind Res 6, 479–492 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-013-9180-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-013-9180-z