Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore whether social relationships of family and school contexts mediate the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on Chinese adolescents' mental health. A school-based study was conducted among a sample aged 13-18 in East China (n=6902). We used scales for measuring social relationships and self-rated mental health. Family SES was computed from subjective socioeconomic status, education and occupation of parents.The mediation model was tested by using Path Analysis in IBM SPSS-Amos. The results showed that SES can significantly influence adolescent mental health through parent-child relationship, student-teacher relationship and student-student relationship. The total effect, direct effect and total indirect effect were-0.209 (95% CI=-0.299, -0.136), -0.090 (95% CI=-0.174, -0.007), -0.119 (95% CI=-0.187, -0.078) for boys, and-0.337 (95% CI=-0.478, -0.230), -0.132 (95% CI=-0.283, 0.010), -0.205 (95% CI=-0.351, -0.085) for girls. The link between SES and adolescent mental health can be explained by social relationships. Focusing on the parent-child, student-student and student-teacher relationship interventions may contribute to improving the mental health of Chinese adolescents, especially in low socioeconomic groups, as well as female students.
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