title: It still takes a village: an epidemiological study of the role of social supports in understanding unexpected health states in young people.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study of adolescent Canadians examines two groups who are anomalous in their health experiences: (1) those with perceived low affluence yet who perceive themselves to have excellent general health status; (2) those of perceived high affluence but who are reporting poor health status. Our hope was to explore the role of social supports in explaining such anomalies. We hypothesized that cumulative levels of social support available to these young people would have an influence on their perceived health status, with more support being associated with better self reported health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Young people (n = 26,078 from 436 schools) aged 11-15 years were administered a general health survey in classroom settings during the 2009-10 academic school year. Descriptive and regression-based cross-sectional analyses (with an affluence-social support interaction term) were used to relate both individual and cumulative levels of social support in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and peer groups to self-reported health status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Social supports and their cumulative availability indeed were strongly related to perceived health, with more supports being associated with better self-perceived health. Less affluent children were much more likely to report excellent health in the presence of numerous social supports. More affluent children were much more likely to report poor health in the absence of such supports. The strength and dose-dependent nature of the findings were consistent and striking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Study findings from this large, contemporary and national analysis affirm the importance of social supports as potential determinants of health for young people from both high and low affluent groups. Conceptually, findings affirm the wisdom of the ancient principle: "it takes a village to raise a child".
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Carruthers Hall, 62 Fifth Field Company Lane, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada. davisonc@queensu.ca.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Davison
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences and School of Religion, Theological Hall, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada. valerie.michaelson@queensu.ca.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Michaelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, Carruthers Hall, 62 Fifth Field Company Lane, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada. will.pickett@queensu.ca.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pickett
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010379:Peer Group; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors