Does an association exist between socio-economic status and subjective physical, mental and social well-being among early adolescents?

Abstract

It is well known that the socio-economic status (SES) has a great impact on adult and childhood well-being. Comparatively little research has been conducted on the relationship of adolescents' subjective well-being to SES. Recent studies though, display a tendency for a strong relationship between adolescences' subjective physical, mental and social well-being to SES. We therefore wanted to find out whether an association exists between SES and subjective physical, mental and social well-being among adolescents as well as between SES and individual school marks. The cross-sectional data of 450 German adolescent students (average age 11 years old) were analysed. The data included socio-demographic variables, school marks and selected subscales of three well-established questionnaires [KIDSCREEN, Kid-Kindl® and the German version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-deu)]. The Hamburg Social School Index (HSSI) was used as an indicator of SES. Significant differences between SES and physical (T = -2.04; p < 0.05) as well as social well-being ('Social Support and Peers' with T = -2.04; p < 0.05) of adolescents were found. Generally, no relations between SES and mental well-being were found. School marks also differed between low and high school SES [German (T = 3.13; p < 0.05), English (T = 5.38; p < 0.01), Mathematics (T = 3.16; p < 0.05) and Sports (T = 2.10; p < 0.05)]. As health in adolescence is a predictor for health in adulthood, health promotion and prevention need to start early (primary school) to improve physical and social well-being in low SES families and schools.