title: Does social support mediate or moderate socioeconomic differences in self-rated health among adolescents?
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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Father involvement seems to have the potential to mediate socioeconomic differences in health during adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School Kosice Institute for Society and Health, P.J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovakia. ferdinand.salonna@upjs.sk
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Salonna
authors.forename: Andrea Madarasova
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Geckova
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zezula
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sleskova
authors.forename: Johan W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Groothoff
authors.forename: Sijmen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Reijneveld
authors.forename: Jitse P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: van Dijk
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D057566:Self Report; D018154:Slovakia; D012923:Social Class; D012944:Social Support