Subjective Social Status and Mental Health in Black Adolescents Living in Poverty

Growing up in socioeconomic disadvantage is a consistent predictor of poor mental health. Although research has largely focused on objective socioeconomic position, studies exploring how subjective social status confers risk for psychopathology have consistently found that youth with lower subjective social status are at increased risk for mental health problems compared to their higher subjective social status peers, regardless of the objective socioeconomic environment. Yet, it remains relatively unknown how subjective social status relates to objective socioeconomic measures and to mental health in marginalized groups. The current study tested whether subjective social status predicts mental health above and beyond objective socioeconomic indicators in a community-based sample of Black adolescents living in poverty (N = 270; M_age = 16.32). Perhaps surprisingly, the majority of mental health outcomes analyzed were not significantly associated with either objective or subjective socioeconomic measures. Cultural, contextual, and racial considerations should be considered in future research on subjective social status and adolescent mental health.