title: Adolescent socio-economic and school-based social status, health and well-being.
abstract: Studies of adults and adolescents suggest subjective socio-economic status (SES) is associated with health/well-being even after adjustment for objective SES. In adolescence, objective SES may have weaker relationships with health/well-being than at other life stages; school-based social status may be of greater relevance. We investigated the associations which objective SES (residential deprivation and family affluence), subjective SES and three school-based subjective social status dimensions ("SSS-peer", "SSS-scholastic" and "SSS-sports") had with physical symptoms, psychological distress and anger among 2503 Scottish 13-15 year-olds. Associations between objective SES and health/well-being were weak and inconsistent. Lower subjective SES was associated with increased physical symptoms and psychological distress, lower SSS-peer with increased psychological distress but reduced anger, lower SSS-scholastic with increased physical symptoms, psychological distress and anger, and lower SSS-sports with increased physical symptoms and psychological distress. Associations did not differ by gender. Objective and subjective SES had weaker associations with health/well-being than did school-based SSS dimensions. These findings underline the importance of school-based SSS in adolescence, and the need for future studies to include a range of school-based SSS dimensions and several health/well-being measures. They also highlight the need for a focus on school-based social status among those working to promote adolescent health/well-being.
authors.affiliation: MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, 200, Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB, UK. Electronic address: Helen.Sweeting@glasgow.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sweeting
authors.affiliation: MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, 200, Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB, UK.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hunt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012574:Schools; D012606:Scotland; D012923:Social Class; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological
keywords: Adolescent; Health; Peer status; Psychological well-being; School-based social status; Socio-economic status; Subjective social status; United Kingdom