Higher Socioeconomic Status Families Research Articles

Family Outcomes After the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A Scoping Review.

Intensivists are increasingly attuned to the postdischarge outcomes experienced by families because patient recovery and family outcomes are interdependent after childhood critical illness. In this scoping review of international contemporary literature, we describe the evidence of family effects and functioning postpediatric intensive care unit (PICU) as well as outcome measures used to identify strengths and weaknesses in the literature. We reviewed all articles published between 1970 and 2017 in PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), or the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry. Our search used a combination of terms for the concept of "critical care/illness" combined with additional terms for the prespecified domains of social, cognitive, emotional, physical, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and family functioning. We identified 71 articles reporting on the postPICU experience of more than 2400 parents and 3600 families of PICU survivors in 8 countries. These articles used 101 different metrics to assess the various aspects of family outcomes; 34 articles also included open-ended interviews. Overall, most families experienced significant disruption in at least five out of six of our family outcomes subdomains, with themes of decline in mental health, physical health, family cohesion, and family finances identified. Almost all articles represented relatively small, single-center, or disease-specific observational studies. There was a disproportionate representation of families of higher socioeconomic status (SES) and Caucasian race, and there was much more data about mothers compared to fathers. There was also very limited information regarding outcomes for siblings and extended family members after a child's PICU stay. Significant opportunities remain for research exploring family functioning after PICU discharge. We recommend that future work include more diverse populations with respect to the critically ill child as well as family characteristics, include more intervention studies, and enrich existing knowledge about outcomes for siblings and extended family.

Parental Educational Attainment and Frequency of Marijuana Use in Youth: Hispanics’ Diminished Returns

Background: While socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as parental educational attainment show robust associations with health behaviors such as substance use, the protective effects of these indicators may differ across racial groups. This phenomenon of weaker associations between SES indicators and health outcomes for marginalized and minoritized groups relative to non-Hispanic White people has been labeled “Marginalization-related Diminished Returns” (MDRs). Here, we test both whether parental educational attainment is associated with marijuana use frequency in youth as well as whether we observe racial and ethnic variation in this association consistent with MDRs. Methods: This study used data from the cross-sectional 2019 Monitoring the Future survey (MTF 2019). Participants included 29,230 youth who were either Hispanic (24.1%), non-Hispanic Black (16.1%), or non-Hispanic White (59.9%). We used weighted logistic regression models to test for (1) associations between maternal educational attainment and youth cannabis use frequency as well as (2) moderation of this association by race/ethnicity, while adjusting for the complex sample design of the MTF 2019 data. Age, sex, father presence, and maternal employment were entered into models as covariates. Results: Overall, children born to mothers with higher educational attainment reported less frequent marijuana use than peers born to mothers with lower educational attainment. However, this association was significantly weaker in Hispanic versus non-Hispanic White youth. Conclusion: The strength of the association between parental educational attainment and youth marijuana use frequency appears to differ across ethnic groups. Specifically, we observed that whereas non-Hispanic White youth from high-SES families tend to report less marijuana use than peers from lower-SES families, Hispanic youth report roughly equal levels of use across the full SES spectrum. This finding is in line with the MDRs framework and may reflect factors such as structural racism, social stratification, and the marginalization of ethnic minority families in the US.

Prevalence of nutritional anemia in children of high socioeconomic status in a tertiary care center

Background: Anemia is a highly prevalent condition developed in children belonging to all socioeconomic status and is mainly caused due to iron deficiency in nutrition. Aim: To identify the Prevalence of nutritional anemia in children of high socioeconomic status. Methods: Children between 6 months and 14 years of age belonging to high socioeconomic status, admitted in pediatric ward of Kauvery Hospital, a tertiary center at Trichy were included in the study. Children with hemolytic anemia, chronic illnesses, and those who received blood transfusion were excluded from the study. The World Health Organization classification was used for grading the severity of anemia as mild, moderate, and severe based on hemoglobin levels for the age. Modified Kuppuswamy scale 2016 was used to assess the socioeconomic status of the children. Children belonging to upper and upper middle socioeconomic status were included in the study. Results: The overall prevalence of anemia among the study population was 44.5%. Out of 400 subjects, 178 participants were anemic. Of the 178 anemic children, 78.1% were in the age group of 6 months–5 years, 20.2% in 5–11 years, and 1.7% in 12–14 years. Among children between 6 and 23 months, 75 were anemic. Almost all patients showed microcytic hypochromic anemia. There were a significantly higher number of overweight and obese children among those anemic in all age groups. Conclusion: This study concludes that every other child is anemic even in families of high socioeconomic status, especially <2 years of age. There is an urgent need to screen and treat all children regardless of their socioeconomic status or body mass index.

A Review Study of the Role of Socioeconomic Status and its Components in Children’s Health

The impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on children is among the most debated issues in human rights. By reviewing the literature, this study aims to identify socioeconomic mechanisms affecting children’s health. The child’s economic operations are influenced by adults. According to several studies, children from middle- and high-SES families, unlike low-SES children, have precise and logical policies, because their parents provide logical explanations in response to their children, and consequently, their children have more cultural capital. This is the family that gives the child sociolinguistic competences. This review study showed that growth rate, nutritional quality, mental health, academic performance, intelligence quotient, mortality rate, and accidents were associated with the economic status of parents, especially mothers. Therefore, it is necessary to implement training programs on proper nutrition, accident prevention, dental health, and psychological interventions for families with low SES.

Socioeconomic inequalities in health among Armenian adolescents: the role of bullying perpetration

Abstract Background Bullying perpetration might be an alternative way of hierarchy formation among adolescents. It can potentially suppress the socioeconomic inequalities in health or might compensate for the negative health influences of low socioeconomic status (SES), rewarding this unwanted behavior. Methods A nationally representative sample of 3679 adolescents aged 11-15 years participated in the Health Behavior in School-aged Children 2013/14 survey in Armenia. Complex samples multiple logistic regression were used to estimate the associations between two SES measures (family socioeconomic position [SEP], material well-being) and three health outcomes (perceived health status, psychosocial well-being, psychosomatic symptoms). Results Bullying perpetration was not associated with less than good health or low psychosocial well-being (P > 0.05) but increased the odds of reporting high psychosomatic symptoms (P < 0.05). Perpetration did not change the SES-health gradient substantially. However, in stratified analyses, socioeconomic inequalities in health were consistently weaker among perpetrators. The largest observed difference was in the relationship between low family (SEP) and less than good health (OR = 3.60, 95% CI = 2.77-4.67 vs. OR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.06 - 3.04), whereas the smallest difference was in the relationship between low family SEP and high psychosomatic symptoms (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.03-1.56 vs. OR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.61-1.77). Conclusions Our findings suggest that bullying perpetration, as an alternative hierarchy, may be looked at as a compensatory but vicious strategy in the face of the negative health influences of low SES in Armenian adolescents. For high-SES adolescents, on the other hand, social, emotional, or psychological problems might contribute to bullying perpetration. Key messages Less vicious alternatives to bullying perpetration should be encouraged, especially for Armenian adolescents from low-SES families. Targeted health interventions might be necessary for bulling perpetrators from high-SES families.

Misconceptions of earnings and their consequences for social stratification in vocational aspirations and attainment

ABSTRACT This paper makes two contributions to the literature on social stratification in vocational attainment. First, we evaluate whether labour market literacy, as measured by knowledge about earnings in different occupations, is socially stratified. Second, we analyse whether differences in expected earnings between high-income and low-income occupations contribute to the social stratification in vocational aspirations and attainment using serial mediation based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study. We find that students are well informed about earnings, on average, but substantially underestimate earnings in some occupations. Students from low socio-economic status (SES) families underestimate earnings more than those from high SES families, particularly earnings in high-status occupations. Therefore, low SES students expect smaller earning differences between high-income and low-income occupations than high-SES students. In turn, small expected differences between high-income and low-income occupations are associated with lower vocational aspirations as well as attainments. Differences in expected earnings of high-income and low-income occupations mediate 4% of the differences in vocational aspirations by parental SES and 2% of the differences in vocational attainment.

Parental Play Beliefs in the Developing Areas of China: A Multiple Case Study

Existing studies have explored parental play beliefs in the developed coastal cities in mainland China, leaving parents in developing areas unstudied. This study aimed to understand how these understudied parents view and engage in their children’s play at home, using Bronfenbrenner’s process–person–context–time (PPCT) model. Eight families were interviewed and observed to explore parental beliefs and practices regarding young children’s play at home. Thematic analysis showed that most parents appreciated the importance of play in children’s early development but did not know how to scaffold their children’s play activities. In addition, the high SES families supported child-led play (i.e., free play), whereas the lower SES families adopted traditional rule-based and adult-driven modes. Therefore, more parent education programs and support should be provided to lower SES families in these developing areas.

Educational inequalities and school segregation. Social cohesion challenges faced by public schools in the local educational system

Challenges that schools face in relation to social cohesion include the need to minimise the impact of students’ social background on their educational career and ensuring that the public school is a place of contact between children from different social groups and class. Research supporting local policy in this area should therefore monitor the social status-based determinants of students’ educational careers and other processes of intentional as well as spontaneous between school and between classroom segregation. The following facts were found in the local educational system analysed. The measures of SES dimensions of students’ family are significantly related to their school achievement. In Ostrołęka, this connection was found to be considerably stronger than the national average. However, which is certainly an optimistic result, the financial resources of the students’ families, with other SES dimensions controlled, did not affect school achievement. Parents’ educational aspirations for their children, on the other hand, are related to all aspects of socio-economic status. In this case, also the financial capacity of the students’ families is significantly related to the level of these aspirations. Including students’ school grades along with the SES dimensions in the analysis of the determinants of educational aspirations shows that they determine aspirations to the same degree as family status does. Sadly, there is no evidence that pre-school education helps low SES students catch up with their peers with high SES families. This means that the key to effectively support the development of children from educationally at-risk backgrounds is in the quality of preschool education and not just its universality. Schools in Ostrołęka differ in their social composition in terms of the parents’ education status and the financial capacity of their families, but the scale of these differences is not considerable. On the other hand, between classroom within school differentiation due to parents’ social status is in some schools much stronger than inter-school differences, which poses a serious problem.

Childhood Roots of Entrepreneurship: Parental Divorce, Entrepreneurial Entry and Performance

We examine the roots of entrepreneurship in childhood by studying how parental divorce affects entrepreneurial entry and performance in adulthood. Drawing on life course theory, we theorize that parental divorce impairs children’s socialization and accumulation of human capital in consequence to deprived family resources, which affects children’s likelihood to become entrepreneurs and their performance in entrepreneurship. Based on data from the United States from the 1979-2016 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and applying a quasi-experimental design, we find that parental divorce in childhood increases the odds of entrepreneurial entry while at the same time negatively affecting entrepreneurial performance in adulthood. We also find that the impact of parental divorce on entrepreneurial entry and performance strengthens with increasing family socio-economic status, suggesting that entering entrepreneurship can constitute a path of downward social mobility for individuals from high socio-economic status families who experienced parental divorce in their childhood.

Rising Inequality in Mothers' Employment Statuses: The Role of Intergenerational Transmission.

During the late twentieth century, U.S. mothers' propensities to hold full-time jobs became increasingly unequal across the distribution of socioeconomic status (SES). Consequently, daughters in high-SES households became more likely to be raised by working mothers than daughters in low-SES households. To what extent did this unequal exposure further shape maternal employment inequality in the twenty-first century-when these daughters had grown into adults and begun to raise their own children? Leveraging the genealogical structure of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this article estimates intergenerational employment coefficients on a sample of late twentieth century mothers and their daughters. It documents a much stronger intergenerational relationship in high-SES families than in low-SES families. Supplementary analyses reveal that being raised by a working mother significantly reduces the motherhood employment penalty among high-SES women but not among low-SES women. Unequal rates of mother-daughter employment transmission by SES can account for 36% of growing inequality in maternal employment across SES groups, observed in the Current Population Survey, between 1999 and 2016. These findings indicate that family-level transmission processes magnify the effects of structural forces on maternal employment inequality.

One but not two grandmothers increased child survival in poorer families in west Bohemian population, 1708–1834

Abstract Human childrearing is characterized by cooperative care and grandmothers are usually the most prominent alloparents. Nevertheless, it has been argued that limited resources may intensify competition among kin. The effect of grandmothers’ presence on child survival may thus crucially depend on the family’s socioeconomic status. We evaluate the impact of grandmothers’ presence on child survival using a large historical dataset from eighteenth to nineteenth-century western Bohemia (N = 6880) and assess the effects of socioeconomic status. We employed a varying effects model conditioned on relatedness between individuals because of possible genetically transmitted benefits. Proportional hazards showed that grandmothers had little or no impact on child survival in families of high and medium socioeconomic status (farmers and cottagers, respectively), whereas in families with the lowest socioeconomic status (lodgers), grandmothers’ presence increased the survival probability of children up to five years of age. The beneficial effect of grandmaternal care was strongest between the first and second years of life. Importantly, though, in families with low socioeconomic status, we also observed lower survival chances of children when both grandmothers lived in the same village. These findings suggest that the balance between kin cooperation in childrearing and competition over resources may depend on resource availability.

Socioeconomic Status and Inequalities in Children’s IQ and Economic Preferences

This paper explores inequalities in IQ and economic preferences between children from families of high and low socioeconomic status (SES). We document that children from high-SES families are more ...

Family socioeconomic status and Chinese high school students' test anxiety: Serial mediating role of parental psychological control, learning resources, and student academic self-efficacy.

It is widely documented that students with lower family socioeconomic status (SES) tend to have higher test anxiety than their peers from higher SES families. However, few studies have empirically examined the underlying mechanism whereby family SES shapes students' test anxiety. To bridge this gap, the present study proposed and tested a serial mediation model in which family SES is associated with students' test anxiety through the indirect effect of parental psychological control, access to learning resources, and academic self-efficacy. The sample comprised 354 Chinese high school students (134 boys; mean age=16.15years old). The results were as follows: (1) higher family SES was associated with increased access to learning resources, higher academic self-efficacy, lower parental psychological control, and lower test anxiety. In contrast, test anxiety was associated with decreased access to learning resources, lower academic self-efficacy, and higher parental psychological control; and (2) the mediation model indicated parental psychological control, learning resources, and academic self-efficacy functioned as serial mediators in the relationship between family SES and students' test anxiety (i.e., family SES → psychological control and learning resources → academic self-efficacy → test anxiety). The findings are discussed in the framework of the family stress/investment models and social cognitive theory. Concrete suggestions for how low SES parents can help decrease their children's test anxiety are provided.

Mediterranean diet and lung function, sensitization, and asthma at school age: The PARIS cohort

The Mediterranean diet (MD) has known health benefits, but its specific impact on allergy development is unclear. As part of the PARIS birth cohort follow-up, we aimed to investigate the adherence of 8-year-old children to the MD and its association with allergic/respiratory morbidity at school age. Diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire completed by the parents. Adherence to the MD was assessed based on two scores: the KIDMED index and the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS). Current allergic diseases (asthma, rhinitis, eczema), lung function indices (FEV1 and FVC), FeNO and specific IgE levels were determined during a health check-up at 8years. Associations between levels of adherence to the MD and respiratory/allergic morbidity were studied using multivariable logistic and linear regression models adjusted for potential confounders. A total of 975 children were included in the present study, 35.6% with low adherence to the MD, 55.7% with moderate adherence and 8.7% with high adherence according to the KIDMED index. High family socioeconomic status, any breastfeeding at 6months and consumption of organic food were associated with higher adherence to the MD. Compared with low adherence, high adherence was associated with lower risk of asthma and sensitization at 8years, as well as higher FEV1 and FVC. This study suggests a protective effect of high adherence to the MD on allergic and respiratory morbidity at school age. These results need to be confirmed by further longitudinal analyses. A healthy diet may prevent allergic and respiratory morbidity in school-aged children.

Home vs. bedroom media devices: socioeconomic disparities and association with childhood screen- and sleep-time

BackgroundThe literature has shown a widespread use of portable electronic devices among children over the last years. This study aimed to identify the availability of different media devices at home versus in children's bedroom according to the socioeconomic status (SES), and analyze the association between that availability and children's screen- and sleep-time on week and weekend days. MethodsData from 3 to 10 year-old children (n = 8430) from a cross-sectional study conducted in Portugal (2016/17) was used. Screen- and sleep-time, availability of media devices, father and mother education (as a proxy measured of SES) were assessed via questionnaire. ResultsAvailable devices at home were significantly more common among high-SES families; while media devices in the bedroom were more frequent in low-SES families (p < 0.001). In preschool and elementary school-aged children, media devices in the bedroom were associated with increase screen-time and shorter sleep per day. Also, mobile devices in the bedroom were shown to exert similar, or even more, influence on children's screen- and sleep-time as television. ConclusionsFurther research is needed to explore the pathways by which different electronic media negatively impacts on children's sleep and screen-time and to develop effective strategies to minimize device access at bedtime.

How do educational inequalities develop? The role of socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, home environment, and self-efficacy along the educational path

In Western countries, children's education is strongly influenced by their social background, which cannot be fully explained by individual differences in cognitive ability between social classes. It is still an open question how, to what extent and at what point along the educational path individual and family factors shape children's educational success. In the present study, twins (N = 6174) clustered in three age cohorts (11, 17 and 23 years) were examined using multilevel analyses to test if parental socioeconomic status (SES) and children's cognitive ability, as well as family's quality of home environment and children's self-efficacy can explain the development of educational inequalities captured via school track recommendations and university attendance. Results showed educational inequalities at each critical point along the entire path of education. With increasing parental SES, individual cognitive abilities mattered significantly less, so that children from high parental SES families often received a recommendation to attend upper secondary education even with low cognitive abilities. In contrast, the association between cognitive abilities and university attendance increased with increasing parental SES in the older age cohort, whereby individuals with high cognitive abilities but low parental SES rarely attended university. Furthermore, for school track recommendations, with increasing children's self-efficacy and better home environment the educational recommendation improved, while home environment amplified the effect of SES on the development of educational inequalities. These results suggest a waste of academic potential of low SES children. Subsequent studies should examine further constructs that could contribute to the development of educational inequalities.

Difference in demographics and motivation to study medicine with respect to medical students’ channel of admission: A national study

Introduction Medical schools employ various tools to select suitable medical students (MS). This study investigated whether MS who were admitted through multiple mini-interviews (MMI) and MS who were admitted through Taiwan’s Joint College Entrance Written Test (JCEWT) differed in their characteristics. Methods and subjects First-year MS from seven medical schools completed a semi-structured questionnaire that inquired into their channel of admission (MMI or JCEWT), gender, location (metropolitan or rural), high school type (public or private), parents’ socioeconomic status (SES), and motivations to study medicine. Results In total, 513 MS participated, 493 (96%) returned valid questionnaires, and 397 were enrolled in the study, (MMI group: 205 MS; JCEWT group: 192 MS). Irrespective of channel of admission, most MS came from metropolitan areas (80%–86%), belonged to high-SES families (73%–76%), and had mixed motivations (51%–96%). Female applicants, private school leavers, and those who were less motivated by the physician’s SES were more likely to be selected through the MMI channel than the JCEWT channel. Conclusion Irrespective of the channels of entry, MS had similar demographics and motivations for studying medicine. MS selected through MMI had different characteristics than those selected through a JCEWT.

The (Unequal) Interplay Between Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills in Early Educational Attainment

Cognitive and noncognitive skills are key indicators of educational success and merit. However, even when accounting for inequalities in skill formation by family socioeconomic status (SES), a wide SES-gap in college enrolment remains. According to the compensatory advantage hypothesis, SES-gaps in educational transitions are largest among cognitively weak students, but little is known on mechanisms. It has long been argued that noncognitive traits such as effort and motivation might be at least as important as cognitive skills over the status-attainment process, and these skills might interact by being complements or substitutes. Thus, I test whether advantaged students substitute low cognitive skills in test scores by high returns to conscientiousness—rated by teachers— in the transition to academic secondary schools. I draw data from the German National Educational Panel Study to study a cohort of students from Grades 1 to 5, when early tracking is enforced. I estimate linear probability models with school fixed-effects and moderation. To account for measurement error, I also use composite latent skills across elementary education. I report three main findings: (a) High-SES students at the same level of cognitive and noncognitive skills than low-SES schoolmates are more likely to attend the academic track bridged to college; (b) in line with the compensatory hypothesis, these SES-inequalities are largest among low cognitive performers; (3) cognitively weak students from high-SES families get the highest educational returns to conscientiousness in comparison to high cognitive performers or low-SES peers, validating the skill substitution hypothesis. These findings challenge the liberal conception of merit as the sum of ability plus effort in assessing equal opportunity in education.

Exposure to electronic media between 6 and 24 months of age: An exploratory study

This study explores the associations between electronic media exposure, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) in a longitudinal sample of 24 infants from English-speaking families. Leveraging Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) technology, the study seeks to characterize the relation between electronic media exposure and parental and child vocal activity. We analyzed ecologically valid, daylong audio recordings collected in infants’ homes when they were 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months old. SES was measured with the Hollingshead Index, and exposure to electronic media and adult and infant vocal activity were measured automatically with LENA. On average, the children in the sample were exposed to 58 min of electronic media daily. We found that electronic media exposure was negatively associated with SES and decreased with child age, but only amongst high-SES families. We also found that electronic media exposure negatively impacted concurrent adult and child vocal activity, irrespective of SES and infant age. The present findings are an important step forward in examining the role of demographic factors in exposure to electronic media and enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which exposure to electronic media may impact linguistic development in infancy and beyond.

Mediating effect of milk intake between family socioeconomic status and body mass index of children and adolescents

Objective To examine the association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and body mass index (BMI) z-score of children and adolescents, and the mediating effect of milk intake in this association. Methods In the study, 2 496 students and their parents were selected from 16 schools (4 urban middle schools, 4 rural middle schools, 4 urban primary schools, and 4 rural primary schools) using a stratified cluster sampling method. The frequency and amount of weekly milk intake from the 7-day Food Records reported by the students were extracted. The parents' education and household income were the indicators of family SES. The mediating effect of milk intake between family SES and BMI z-score of children and adolescents were tested using the PROCESS add-on SPSS software. Results Parents' education level and household income were positively correlated with BMI z-score of children and adolescents (P=0.001 and 0.038, respectively). The overall average daily intake of milk was (0.92±0.84) servings, and the frequency was (4.43±2.70) days per week. The students of primary school, in urban areas, with higher parents' education level, with higher household income, and being non-obese were likely to have higher frequency and amount of milk intake. Milk intake was one of the mediating factors in the relationship between family SES and BMI z-score of children and adolescents. Specifically, the mediating effect of the frequency of milk intake accounted for -6.57% and -10.21% of the total effects of the association between the parents' education and the household income with BMI z-score of children and adolescents, respectively. The mediating effect of the daily intake of milk accounted for -3.63% and -5.86% of the total effects of the association between the parents' education and the household income with BMI z-score of children and adolescents, respectively. Conclusion The milk intake of Chinese children and adolescents still needs to be improved. High family SES was found to contribute to high BMI z-score, mediated by the milk intake which was the protective factors of BMI z-score. Further research is needed to study other dietary or physical exercise behaviors that mediate the relationship between family SES and BMI z-score of children and adolescents in order to adopt more targeted interventions.