Examining the influences of gender, race, ethnicity, and social capital on the subjective health of adolescents.
We investigate the factors that influence adolescent self-assessed health, based upon surveys conducted between 2000 and 2004 of high-school seniors in Washington State (N=6853). A large proportion of the sample (30%) was first and second generation immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Findings include a robust negative effect of female gender on self-reported health that is largely unmodified by demographic, developmental, social capital, and parental support variables, gender differences in the covariates of self-reported health, and the tendency of male adolescents of Cambodian and Vietnamese origin to report lower levels of self-reported health despite controls for other health-related individual characteristics. Social capital dimensions such as positive school affiliation, social network cohesion, and a safe learning environment were found to covary with the self-reported health of adolescent females.
Almgren
Gunnar
G
School of Social Work, Department of Sociology, University of Washington, 4101 15th Avenue N.E. Seattle, WA 98105-6299, USA. mukboy@u.washington.edu
Magarati
Maya
M
Mogford
Liz
L
D000293:Adolescent; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups; D012944:Social Support; D014861:Washington