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Published in: International Journal of Public Health 3/2012

Open Access 01-06-2012 | Original Article

Does social support mediate or moderate socioeconomic differences in self-rated health among adolescents?

Authors: Ferdinand Salonna, Andrea Madarasova Geckova, Ivan Zezula, Maria Sleskova, Johan W. Groothoff, Sijmen A. Reijneveld, Jitse P. van Dijk

Published in: International Journal of Public Health | Issue 3/2012

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Abstract

Objective

Social support is assumed to be a protective social determinant of health. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore whether social support from the father, mother and friends mediates or moderates the association between socioeconomic position and self-rated health among adolescents.

Methods

The sample consisted of 1,863 secondary school students from the Kosice region in Slovakia (mean age 16.85; 53.3% females, response rate 98.9%). We assessed the mediation and moderation effects of social support from the mother, father and friends on the relation between socioeconomic position and self-rated health, performing binary logistic regression models. Socioeconomic position was measured by parents’ education, the family affluence scale and financial strain.

Results

Social support from the father mediated the association between family affluence and self-rated health among both males and females and the association between financial strain and self-rated health among males only. No moderating effect of social support on socioeconomic differences in self-rated health was found.

Conclusion

Father involvement seems to have the potential to mediate socioeconomic differences in health during adolescence.
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Metadata
Title
Does social support mediate or moderate socioeconomic differences in self-rated health among adolescents?
Authors
Ferdinand Salonna
Andrea Madarasova Geckova
Ivan Zezula
Maria Sleskova
Johan W. Groothoff
Sijmen A. Reijneveld
Jitse P. van Dijk
Publication date
01-06-2012
Publisher
SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel
Published in
International Journal of Public Health / Issue 3/2012
Print ISSN: 1661-8556
Electronic ISSN: 1661-8564
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-011-0300-6

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