Top

BMC Pediatrics

Published in:

01-12-2020 | Research article

How do socioeconomic status relate to social relationships among adolescents: a school-based study in East China

Authors: Jing Li, Jing Wang, Jia-yu Li, Sheng Qian, Rui-xia Jia, Ying-quan Wang, Jing-hong Liang, Yong Xu

Published in: BMC Pediatrics | Issue 1/2020

Abstract

Background

A great number of studies have concentrated on the influence of socioeconomic status with health outcomes, but little on how socioeconomic status affects social relationship in adolescents’ families, peers and schools. This study aimed to clarify more detailed information on the connection between social relationships and different dimensions of socioeconomic status.

Methods

A school-based cross-sectional study was performed by 13–18 adolescents enrolled in East China from September, 2018 to May, 2019, which recruited 6902 students from junior and senior high schools and used the stratified random sampling method. Parent-child relationship (cohesion, expressiveness, conflict), peer relationship (interpersonal relationship, communication and interaction, social emotion) and student-teacher relationship (intimacy, support, satisfaction, conflict) were investigated. Besides, objective socioeconomic status (parental education and occupation, assessed by the adolescent) and subjective socioeconomic status (self-evaluation of family social class) were measured. More detailed information was used to clarify the link between social relationships and different dimensions of socioeconomic status.

Results

All five indicators of socioeconomic status were slightly positively correlated with the quality of social relationships (r ranged from 0.036 to 0.189, all p < 0.001), except that maternal education was not correlated with the conflict dimension of parent-child relationship. Standardized regression coefficients indicated that paternal education (β = 0.08) and occupation (β = 0.07) were the predictors of parent-child relationship. And peer relationship model revealed that the corresponding effect size was slightly stronger for subjective socioeconomic status (β = 0.10), whereas the maternal education had a slightly stronger correlation with student-teacher relationship (β = 0.07) relative to other indicators.

Conclusions

Adolescents with lower socioeconomic status had poorer social relationships compared to those with higher socioeconomic status. These findings have important public health implications for health policy makers to make sound decisions on resources allocation and services planning in improving adolescents’ social relationships and promoting health outcomes.

Cirino PT, Chin CE, Sevcik RA, Wolf M, Lovett M, Morris RD. Measuring socioeconomic status: reliability and preliminary validity for different approaches. Assessment. 2002;9(2):145–55.PubMedCrossRef

Gakidou E, Cowling K, Lozano R, Murray CJ. Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in 175 countries between 1970 And 2009: a systematic analysis. Lancet (London, England). 2010;376(9745):959–74.CrossRef

Garbarski D. Perceived social position and health: is there a reciprocal relationship? Soc Sci Med. 2010;70(5):692–9.PubMedCrossRef

Adler NE, Epel ES, Castellazzo G, Ickovics JR. Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: preliminary data in healthy white women. Health Psychol. 2000;19(6):586–92.PubMedCrossRef

Singh-Manoux A, Adler NE, Marmot MG. Subjective social status: its determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II study. Soc Sci Med. 2003;56(6):1321–33.PubMedCrossRef

Singh-Manoux A, Marmot MG, Adler NE. Does subjective social status predict health and change in health status better than objective status? Psychosom Med. 2005;67(6):855–61.PubMedCrossRef

Mackenbach JP. Health inequalities: lifecourse approaches. BMJ Clin Res. 2003;60(3):387–90.

Kramer MS, Seguin L, Lydon J, Goulet L. Socio-economic disparities in pregnancy outcome: why do the poor fare so poorly? Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2000;14(3):194–210.PubMedCrossRef

Adler NE, Ostrove JM. Socioeconomic status and health: what we know and what we don't. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999;896:3–15.PubMedCrossRef

10.

Viner RM, Ozer EM, Denny S, Marmot M, Resnick M, Fatusi A, Currie C. Adolescence and the social determinants of health. Lancet (London, Engl). 2012;379(9826):1641–52.CrossRef

11.

Chen E, Paterson LQ. Neighborhood, family, and subjective socioeconomic status: how do they relate to adolescent health? Health psychology : official journal of the division of Health Psychology. Am Psychol Assoc. 2006;25(6):704–14.

12.

Lowry R, Kann L, Collins JL, Kolbe LJ. The effect of socioeconomic status on chronic disease risk behaviors among US adolescents. JAMA. 1996;276(10):792–7.PubMedCrossRef

13.

West P. Health inequalities in the early years: is there equalisation in youth? Soc Sci Med. 1997;44(6):833–58.PubMedCrossRef

14.

Goodman E. The role of socioeconomic status gradients in explaining differences in US adolescents' health. Am J Public Health. 1999;89(10):1522–8.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

15.

U B. The ecology of human development. Cambrigde: Harvard University Press; 1979.

16.

Vanassche SSAK, Matthijs K, Swicegood G. The effects of family type, family relationships and parental role models on delinquency and alcohol use among Flemish adolescents. J Child Fam Stud. 2013;23(1):128–43.CrossRef

17.

Hartup WW. The company they keep: friendships and their developmental significance. Child Dev. 1996;67(1):1–13.PubMedCrossRef

18.

Sentse M, Lindenberg S, Omvlee A, Ormel J, Veenstra R. Rejection and acceptance across contexts: parents and peers as risks and buffers for early adolescent psychopathology. The TRAILS study. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2010;38(1):119–30.PubMedCrossRef

19.

Longobardi C, Prino LE, Marengo D, Settanni M. Student-teacher relationships as a protective factor for school adjustment during the transition from middle to high school. Front Psychol. 2016;7:1988.PubMedPubMedCentral

20.

Fowler LTS, Banks T, Anhalt K, Der HH, Kalis T. The association between externalizing behavior problems, teacher-student relationship quality, and academic performance in Young urban learners. Behav Disord. 2008;33(3):167–83.CrossRef

21.

Hamre BK, Pianta RC. Early teacher-child relationships and the trajectory of children's school outcomes through eighth grade. Child Dev. 2001;72(2):625–38.PubMedCrossRef

22.

Umberson DMJK. Social relationships and health: A flashpoint for health policy. J Health Soc Behav. 2010;51(Supp l):54–66.CrossRef

23.

Zhang M, Wang Z. Mental health state of middle or high school students. Chin Ment Health J. 2001;15(4):226–7.

24.

Braveman PA, Cubbin C, Egerter S, Chideya S, Marchi KS, Metzler M, Posner S. Socioeconomic status in health research: one size does not fit all. Jama. 2005;294(22):2879–88.PubMedCrossRef

25.

org.cambridge.ebooks.online.book. Author@ce: The Psychology of Survey Response; 2000.

26.

OECD: ISCED 2011 Operational Manual Guidelines for Classifying National Education PrograMmes and Related Qualifications 2015.CrossRef

27.

Lien N, Friestad C, Klepp KI. Adolescents’ proxy reports of parents’ socioeconomic status: How valid are they? J Epidemiol Commun Health. 2001;55(10):731–7.CrossRef

28.

Office IL. International standard classification of occupations: ISCO-08 (Vol.1) structure, group definitions and correspondence tables. Geneva: International Labour Office; 2012.

29.

Goodman E, Adler NE, Kawachi I, Frazier AL, Huang B, Colditz GA. Adolescents' perceptions of social status: development and evaluation of a new indicator. Pediatrics. 2001;108(2):E31.PubMedCrossRef

30.

MRH HCJ. The quality of social support: Measures of family and work relationships. Br J Clin Psychol. 1983;22(3):157–62.CrossRef

31.

Xue L, Zhu X, Bai M, et al. The Chinese Version of Family Environment Scale Symptoms Questionnaire in Adolescent Students: Its Reliability and Validity. Chin J Health Psychol. 2014;22(6):881–3.

32.

Wei Y. Influence of school factors on self-esteem development among adolescents and children. Psychol Dev Educ. 1998;02:12–6.

33.

Pan Y. Research on the status of peer relationship satisfaction of hearing-impaired middle school students. Foundations Educ Res. 2015;13(7):73–5.

34.

Pianta RC. Student-teacher relationship scale: professional manual: psychological assessment resources; 2001.

35.

Qu Z. The characteristics of classroom environment in primary and secondary schools and its relationship with students’ school adaptation. Beijing: Beijing Normal University; 2002.

36.

Yan J. The relationship between interpersonal closeness, mental health and academic performance of junior high school students and its intervention. Shanghai: Shanghai Normal University; 2018.

37.

Cohen J. In: 2nd ed, editor. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1988.

38.

Nagelkerke NJD. A note on a general definition of the coefficient of determination. Biometrika. 1991;78(3):691–2.CrossRef

39.

Morrow V. Conceptualising social capital in relation to the well-being of children and young people: a critical review. Soc Rev. 2010;47(4):744–65.CrossRef

40.

Ye Z, Wen M, Wang W, Lin D. Subjective family socio-economic status, school social capital, and positive youth development among young adolescents in China: a multiple mediation model. Int J Psychol. 2020;55(2):173–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12583.

41.

Wilkinson RG. Health, hierarchy, and social anxiety. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999;896:48–63.PubMedCrossRef

42.

Brown BB. Adolescents’ relationships with peers; 2013.

43.

Karvonen S, Rahkonen O. Subjective social status and health in young people. Soc Health Illness. 2011;33(3):372–83.CrossRef

44.

Bradley RH, Corwyn RF. Socioeconomic status and child development. Annu Rev Psychol. 2002;53:371–99.PubMedCrossRef

45.

Sweeting H, West P, Young R, Kelly S. Dimensions of adolescent subjective social status within the school community: description and correlates. J Adolesc. 2011;34(3):493–504.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

46.

Wilkinson RG, Pickett KE. The problems of relative deprivation: why some societies do better than others. Soc Sci Med. 2007;65(9):1965–78.PubMedCrossRef

47.

Svedberg P, Nygren JM, Staland-Nyman C, Nyholm M. The validity of socioeconomic status measures among adolescents based on self-reported information about parents occupations, FAS and perceived SES; implication for health related quality of life studies. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2016;16:48.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

48.

Galobardes B, Lynch J, Smith GD. Measuring socioeconomic position in health research. Br Med Bull. 2007;81-82:21–37.PubMedCrossRef

49.

Xie B. Education degree of parents, parenting style and children’s interpersonal skills. Hunan: Xiangtan University; 2019.

50.

Chao RK. Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training. Child Dev. 1994;65(4):1111–9.PubMedCrossRef

51.

Conger RD, Donnellan MB. An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development. Annu Rev Psychol. 2007;58:175–99.PubMedCrossRef

52.

Mohammadi M, Zarafshan H. Family function, parenting style and broader autism phenotype as predicting factors of psychological adjustment in typically developing siblings of children with autism Spectrum disorders. Iran J Psychiatry. 2014;9(2):55–63.PubMedPubMedCentral

53.

Yan Xulei YP. A new theory of family education. Beijing: Peking University Press; 2012.

54.

Fox RA, Platz DL, Bentley KS. Maternal factors related to parenting practices, developmental expectations, and perceptions of child behavior problems. J Genet Psychol. 1995;156(4):431–41.PubMedCrossRef

55.

Paquette D. Theorizing the father-child relationship: mechanisms and developmental outcomes. Hum Dev. 2004;47(4):193–219.CrossRef

56.

Huang L, Stroul B, Friedman R, et al. Transforming mental health care for children and their families. Am Psychol. 2005;6(60):615–27.CrossRef

Title: How do socioeconomic status relate to social relationships among adolescents: a school-based study in East China
Authors: Jing Li
Jing Wang
Jia-yu Li
Sheng Qian
Rui-xia Jia
Ying-quan Wang
Jing-hong Liang
Yong Xu
Publication date: 01-12-2020
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: BMC Pediatrics / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2431
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-020-02175-w

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

How do socioeconomic status relate to social relationships among adolescents: a school-based study in East China

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 1/2020

Clinical practice guideline on the prevention and management of neonatal extravasation injury: a before-and-after study design

Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding caused by congenital enteropathy in a Chinese young child-a case report

A cost-of-illness analysis of β-Thalassaemia major in children in Sri Lanka – experience from a tertiary level teaching hospital

Association of serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D with Vitamin D intervention and outdoor activity among children in North China: an observational study

Effectiveness of a school-based intervention on knowledge, attitude and practice on healthy lifestyle and body composition in Malaysian adolescents

Introduction of less invasive surfactant administration (LISA), impact on diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in early life: a historical cohort study