Original article
Perceived Socioeconomic Status: A New Type of Identity That Influences Adolescents’ Self-Rated Health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.05.020Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

The cognitive, social, and biological transitions of adolescence suggest that subjective perceptions of social position based on the socioeconomic hierarchy may undergo important changes during this period; yet how such perceptions develop is poorly understood, and no studies have assessed whether changes in such perceptions influence adolescents’ health. This study describes adolescents’ subjective perceptions of familial socioeconomic status (SSS), how SSS changes over time, and how age, race, and objective socioeconomic status (SES) indicators influence SSS. In addition, the study determines whether SSS independently influences adolescents’ self-rated health, an important predictor of morbidity and health service use.

Methods

A total of 1179 non-Hispanic black and white baseline 7–12th graders from a Midwestern public school district completed a validated, teen-specific measure of SSS annually for 4 consecutive years. A parent provided information on SES. Markov modeling assessed transitions in SSS over time.

Results

SSS declined with age (p = .001) and stabilized among older teens. In addition to age, SES and race, but not gender, were significant correlates of SSS, but the relationships between these factors were complex. In cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, black teens from families with low parent education had higher SSS than white teens from similarly educated families, whereas white teens from highly educated families had higher SSS than black teens from highly educated families. Lower SSS and changes in SSS predicted poor self-rated health even when adjusting for race and objective SES measures.

Conclusion

Subjective evaluations of socioeconomic status predict adolescents’ global health ratings even when adjusting for the sociodemographic factors that shape them.

Section snippets

Study sample and procedures

This study uses data from the Princeton School District (PSD) Study, a prospective study from a single Midwestern suburban public school system with one junior high school and one senior high school [14]. The Princeton City School District is a well-defined geographic area that includes six diverse, independent, incorporated communities plus unincorporated areas of Hamilton and Butler Counties (Ohio). Approval for the cohort study was received from the Institutional Review Boards at the

Description of SSS across the four waves of data collection

Mean SSS (SD) across the four waves was as follows; wave 1, μ = 6.65 (1.34); wave 2 μ = 6.65 (1.38); wave 3 μ = 6.66(1.36); and wave 4 μ = 6.60 (1.35). Although these mean values are nearly identical, there was substantial within-person variation in SSS (F = 3.78, p = .01) and a significant linear trend across the four waves (linear contrast F = 6.94, p = .009). Between waves 1 and 2, only 35.0% had identical SSS at both waves and the within-person change in SSS ranged from −7 to +8. Although

Discussion

In this study, adolescents’ perceptions of their family’s socioeconomic status was shaped by multiple social factors, including age, race, and objective SES. As youth developed, a complex pattern of relationships emerged between these factors that influenced how perceptions of family SES changed over time. These data suggest that internalized beliefs of family socioeconomic position could be understood as a type of identity akin to gender and racial/ethnic identity. Further, the robust

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants HD41527 and DK59183, the William T. Grant Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The authors thank Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Ph.D., for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript, as well as the students, parents, teachers, administration and staff of the Princeton City School district and the PSD study staff.

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