Components Of Socioeconomic Status Research Articles

Variations in healthcare utilization for mental health problems prior to suicide by socioeconomic status: a Norwegian register-based population study

BackgroundSuicide poses a major public health challenge, claiming around 650 lives annually in Norway. There is limited understanding of mental healthcare utilization patterns preceding suicide, particularly relating to socioeconomic status (SES). This study analyzes mental health service use among Norwegian citizens aged 20–64 from 2009 to 2021, emphasizing disparities related to SES.MethodsThis is a population-wide registry-based study. We include mental health consultations with both primary and specialist healthcare services, and investigate patterns of service use regarding educational attainment, employment status and income and compare this to the population in general. All suicides in the period (N = 4731) are included in the study. The aim is to investigate potential discrepancies in service use the year and month preceding suicide, seeking to enhance targeted preventive interventions.ResultsOur results show significant variations in healthcare use for mental health problems the last year preceding suicide, according to the components of SES, for both men and women. Those with higher education utilize the mental healthcare services prior to suicide to a higher degree than men and women with high school education or less, whereas employed men and men with high income level have significantly lower mental healthcare usage prior to suicide both the last year and month compared to the non-employed men and men with low-income level. Employed women also had a lower mental healthcare usage, whereas the results regarding income are not significant for women.ConclusionMental healthcare use prior to suicide varies across the SES components. Notably, the SES groups exhibit heterogeneity, with gendered patterns. Targeted interventions for low consultation rates among employed men, and men with high income and lower education are needed, while women, and men in at-risk groups, such as the non-employed and those with low income, demonstrate higher mental healthcare utilization, warranting comprehensive suicide prevention measures.

Relative brain age is associated with socioeconomic status and anxiety/depression problems in youth.

Brain age, a measure of biological aging in the brain, has been linked to psychiatric illness, principally in adult populations. Components of socioeconomic status (SES) associate with differences in brain structure and psychiatric risk across the lifespan. This study aimed to investigate the influence of SES on brain aging in childhood and adolescence, a period of rapid neurodevelopment and peak onset for many psychiatric disorders. We reanalyzed data from the Healthy Brain Network to examine the influence of SES components (occupational prestige, public assistance enrollment, parent education, and household income-to-needs ratio [INR]) on relative brain age (RBA). Analyses included 470 youth (5-17 years; 61.3% men), self-identifying as White (55%), African American (15%), Hispanic (9%), or multiracial (17.2%). Household income was 3.95 ± 2.33 (mean ± SD) times the federal poverty threshold. RBA quantified differences between chronological age and brain age using covariation patterns of morphological features and total volumes. We also examined associations between RBA and psychiatric symptoms (Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL]). Models covaried for sex, scan location, and parent psychiatric diagnoses. In a linear regression, lower RBA is associated with lower parent occupational prestige (p = .01), lower public assistance enrollment (p = .03), and more parent psychiatric diagnoses (p = .01), but not parent education or INR. Lower parent occupational prestige (p = .02) and lower RBA (p = .04) are associated with higher CBCL anxious/depressed scores. Our findings underscore the importance of including SES components in developmental brain research. Delayed brain aging may represent a potential biological pathway from SES to psychiatric risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Differences in site-specific cancer incidence by individual- and area-level income in Canada from 2006 to 2015.

Income, a component of socioeconomic status, influences cancer risk as a social determinant of health. We evaluated the independent associations between individual- and area-level income and site-specific cancer incidence in Canada. We used data from the 2006 and 2011 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohorts, which are probabilistically linked datasets constituted by 5.9 million and 6.5 million respondents of the 2006 Canadian long-form census and 2011 National Household Survey, respectively. Individuals were linked to the Canadian Cancer Registry through 2015. Individual-level income was derived using after-tax household income adjusted for household size. Annual tax return postal codes were used to assign area-level income quintiles to individuals for each year of follow-up. We calculated age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR) and rate ratios for cancers overall and by site. We conducted multivariable negative binomial regression to adjust these rates for other demographic and socioeconomic variables. Individuals of lower individual- and area-level income had higher ASIRs compared to those in the wealthiest income quintile for head and neck, oropharyngeal, esophageal, stomach, colorectal, anal, liver, pancreas, lung, cervical and kidney and renal pelvis cancers. Conversely, individuals of wealthier individual- and area-level income had higher ASIRs for melanoma, leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, breast, uterine, prostate and testicular cancers. Most differences in site-specific incidence by income quintile remained after adjustment. Although Canada's publicly funded healthcare system provides universal coverage, inequalities in cancer incidence persist across individual- and area-level income gradients. Our estimates suggest that individual- and area-level income affect cancer incidence through independent mechanisms.

"More is better" or "better near the middle"? A U.S.-based individual participant data meta-analysis of socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a widely researched construct in developmental science, yet less is known concerning relations between SES and adaptive behavior. Specifically, is the relation linear, with higher SES associated with better outcomes, or does the direction of association change at different levels of SES? Our aim was to examine linear ("more is better") and quadratic ("better near the middle") associations between components of SES (i.e., income, years of education, occupational status/prestige) and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale), and to explore moderation by developmental period (adolescence, young, middle, and older adulthood), gender/sex (female, male), and race/ethnicity (Asian American, Black, Latinx, multiracial, Native American, White). We hypothesized that there would be more support for a model containing quadratic associations. We conducted a two-stage meta-analytic structural equation model of 60 data sets (27,242 correlations, 498,179 participants) within the United States, accounting for dependencies between correlations, which were identified via the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research and handled using a two-step approach. Income was quadratically associated with depressive symptoms, but the quadratic model did not explain more variance in depressive symptoms than the linear model. Developmental period and race/ethnicity moderated the associations: Income was quadratically associated with depressive symptoms among middle-aged adults, and years of education were quadratically associated with depressive symptoms among White samples. Our findings suggest that researchers and clinical practitioners should consider the elevated risk of depressive symptoms for individuals from low and high-income backgrounds in the United States. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Direct Effect of Life-Course Socioeconomic Status on Late-Life Cognition and Cognitive Decline in the Rush Memory and Aging Project.

The role of socioeconomic status (SES) across the life course in late-life cognition is unclear. We tested the hypotheses that: 1) High SES in childhood, young adulthood, midlife, and late life have independent causal effects on higher cognition level and slower cognitive decline; 2) Compared with stable low SES (referent), stable high SES has the largest estimated effect for higher cognition level and slower decline among life-course SES combinations. The Rush Memory and Aging Project enrolled 1,940 dementia-free older adults in northeastern Illinois (1997-2018). We used inverse probability-weighted marginal structural models to estimate the joint and independent effect of each life-course SES on global and domain-specific cognition. A total of 1,746 participants had, on average, 6 years of follow-up. High SES at each life-course stage starting in young adulthood had a protective estimated effect on global and domain-specific cognition intercepts. Compared with consistently low SES, consistently high SES (β= 0.64, 95% confidence interval: 0.48, 0.93) and high SES beyond childhood (β= 0.64, 95% confidence interval: 0.47, 0.83) had the largest benefit for global cognition intercepts. None of the life-course SES measures influenced rate of global or domain-specific decline. Additional understanding of life-course SES components influencing cognitive level is warranted.

Persistence of Poverty: How Measures of Socioeconomic Status Have Changed Over Time

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a common measure used to gauge social, cultural, and financial capital in scientific literature. Over time, SES research has produced an extremely wide and inconsistently used variety of SES variables and components. This study will review research that estimates SES and will examine common components and trends from the inception of its measurement to present data. A systematic review protocol was used to gather literature related to SES, and a historical analysis was conducted to examine the SES variables and their components that were most commonly used in the literature. Results displayed varying trends by decade, with earlier SES measures including components on social capital and more recent measures incorporating aspects of cultural and economic capital. Subjective perspectives of social class became more common toward the turn of the century, and few measures included components from more asset-based frameworks. The Big 3 measures (parental education, parental occupation, and income) have been common measures across time.

Developing a household socioeconomic status index tool for health studies in Iran: An analytic hierarchy process approach

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is a criterion consisting of several components that encompass socioeconomic and cultural dimensions. This study aimed to design and develop a methodological guideline for calculating a single summary index (SSI) using the contributing variables of SES in a family unit. Methods: The data consisted of 18700 urban and 19200 rural households. Effective components of SES were extracted using two-step factor analysis and the structural equational modeling (SEM) method for both populations separately with AMOS software. Then, in order to customize and validate the weight of each component, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was performed by a panel of experts. Finally, the SES index computational tool was developed as an SSI using all effective components by Excel software. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS software version 21. Results: In rural areas, the four wealth components of education, job, income, and family size were recognized as effective socioeconomic factors. Yet, in urban areas, family size was disregarded as an effective factor. In both rural and urban communities the three welfare components of appropriate nutrition, appropriate home appliance, and appropriate housing were similarly effective. The SES of rural population had a homogeneous distribution, while urban population did not follow a particular trend. Conclusion: The SES index impacts all aspects of life, especially health status. The introduced method is comprehensive and applicable to both rural and urban populations. Due to ever-changing lifestyles, constant technological advances, and sociopolitical changes in each society, the tool requires modification in a specific time intervals.

Stress and Alcohol Intake among Hispanic Adult Immigrants in the U.S. Midwest.

Alcohol intake and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) among recent and very recent Hispanic immigrants are not well characterized, in particular in the context of perceived stress among such groups. The objective of the present study was to shed light on alcohol intake and AUD overall, as well as potential modifications derived from varying levels of stress and socioeconomic status (SES). The study population was immigrants with six or fewer months of having arrived in the American Midwest, and members of their peer networks who had been in the U.S. for 2+ years. We found that AUD and alcohol intake spanned from very high to a considerable proportion who abstained; perceived stress did not have an obvious impact on AUD or alcohol intake. Moreover, neither New vs. Established immigrant statuses, or SES levels, were associated with AUD or alcohol intake. Future research should examine in a more finely-grained approach the components of SES to verify if the complex circumstances of recent immigrants are in fact amenable to SES classification using standard quantification approaches-even using the functional descriptions of the SES surrogates we used.

Genetic basis of job attainment characteristics and the genetic sharing with other SES indices and well-being

Job attainment is an important component of socioeconomic status (SES). There is currently a paucity of genomic research on an individual’s job attainment, as well as how it is related to other SES variables and overall well-being at the whole genome level. By incorporating O*NET occupational information into the UK Biobank database, we performed GWAS analyses of six major job attainment characteristics—job complexity, autonomy, innovation, information demands, emotional demands, and physical demands—on 219,483 individuals of European ancestry. The job attainment characteristics had moderate to high pairwise genetic correlations, manifested by three latent factors: cognitive, emotional, and physical requirements. The latent factor of overall job requirement underlying the job attainment traits represented a critical genetic path from educational attainment to income (P < 0.001). Job attainment characteristics were genetically positively correlated with positive health and well-being outcomes (i.e., subject well-being, overall health rating, number of non-cancer illnesses etc. (|rg|: 0.14–0.51), similar to other SES indices; however, the genetic correlations exhibited opposite directions for physical demands (|rg|: 0.14–0.51) and were largely negligible for emotional demands. By adopting a finer-grained approach to capture specific job attainment phenotypes, our study represents an important step forward in understanding the shared genetic architecture among job attainment characteristics, other SES indices, and potential role in health and well-being outcomes.

Trends in material and non-material inequalities in adolescent health and health behaviours: A 12-year study in 23 European countries

Information on trends in adolescent health inequalities is scarce but the available evidence suggests that inequalities are increasing. Prior studies describe associations between material resources of socioeconomic status (SES) and health, while information on non-material SES resources and inequalities in health behaviours is lacking. To improve current understandings of evolutions in adolescent health inequalities, we examined how material and non-material SES resources were associated with changes in selected health outcomes (life satisfaction, physical and psychological symptoms) and health behaviours (physical activity, screen time, breakfast, fruit, vegetables, sweets and soft drinks consumption and alcohol and tobacco use) over a 12-year period. Repeated cross-sectional data came from the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 waves of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey from 23 European countries (n = 480,386). Measures of family affluence and occupational social class were used as indicators of material and non-material SES resources respectively. Regression-based slope indices of inequality indicated that absolute material and non-material inequalities remained stable from 2002 to 2014 in all health outcomes, except for life satisfaction for which a decrease in material inequalities was found between the highest and lowest affluence group (0.81 to 0.68 difference; p < 0.001). In terms of health behaviours, material inequalities decreased in screen time between highest and lowest affluence groups (0.53 to 0.34 h/day difference; p < 0.001), fruit (odds ratio [OR] 1.89 to 1.72 lower odds; p = 0.0088) and soft drinks consumption (OR 1.36 to 1.13 lower odds; p < 0.001) and remained stable in all others. Non-material inequalities increased in all health behaviours (except for sweets consumption) between highest and lowest occupational social class groups: physical activity (0.16 to 0.24 h/day difference; p = 0.0071), screen time (−0.41 to −0.58 h/day difference; p < 0.001), breakfast (0.21 to 0.51 day/week difference; p < 0.001), fruit (OR 1.23 to 1.48 higher odds; p < 0.001), vegetables (OR 1.39 to 1.74 higher odds; p < 0.001) and soft drinks consumption (OR 0.59 to 0.43 lower odds; p < 0.001) and alcohol (OR 0.99 to 0.85 lower odds; p = 0.0420) and tobacco use (OR 0.71 to 0.59 lower odds; p = 0.0183). In summary, non-material inequalities in most health behaviours increased, whereas material inequalities in adolescent health and health behaviours remain stable or decreased. Policies and interventions may consider non-material SES components as these can help in reducing future health inequalities.

Effects of socioeconomic status and its components on academic achievement: evidence from Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang (China)

ABSTRACT The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement can both reflect the degree to which students’ academic achievement is affected by SES and reveal detailed information about educational equity in a country/economy. Based on PISA 2018 data, this study investigated the effects of SES and its components on student academic achievement at both the student and school levels in a population of 15-year-old students from Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang (China). Results showed the following: (1) B-S-J-Z (China) students’ academic achievement was positively related to their family SES and school SES. (2) The effects of different SES components on academic achievement varied, and the most predictive variables were the father’s occupational status, the father’s level of education, and the mother’s occupational status. (3) School disciplinary climate was shown to moderate the effects of SES on academic achievement. Drawing on the research findings, this study suggested that the government should (1) further promote education equity with a primary focus on disadvantaged student groups; (2) improve the enrolment policy and increase the diversity of student backgrounds; (3) promote teacher professional development and continuously improve school effectiveness.

Parental education is associated with differential engagement of neural pathways during inhibitory control

Response inhibition and socioeconomic status (SES) are critical predictors of many important outcomes, including educational attainment and health. The current study extends our understanding of SES and cognition by examining brain activity associated with response inhibition, during the key developmental period of adolescence. Adolescent males (N = 81), aged 16–17, completed a response inhibition task while undergoing fMRI brain imaging and reported on their parents’ education, one component of socioeconomic status. A region of interest analysis showed that parental education was associated with brain activation differences in the classic response inhibition network (right inferior frontal gyrus + subthalamic nucleus + globus pallidus) despite the absence of consistent parental education-performance effects. Further, although activity in our main regions of interest was not associated with performance differences, several regions that were associated with better inhibitory performance (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, amygdala/hippocampus) also differed in their levels of activation according to parental education. Taken together, these results suggest that individuals from households with higher versus lower parental education engage key brain regions involved in response inhibition to differing degrees, though these differences may not translate into performance differences.

Race, Income, and Medical Care Spending Patterns in High-Risk Primary Care Patients: Results From the STOP-DKD (Simultaneous Risk Factor Control Using Telehealth to Slow Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease) Study

Rationale & ObjectiveLittle is known about how socioeconomic status (SES) relates to the prioritization of medical care spending over personal expenditures in individuals with multiple comorbid conditions, and whether this relationship differs between Blacks and non-Blacks. We aimed to explore the relationship between SES, race, and medical spending among individuals with multiple comorbid conditions.Study DesignCross-sectional evaluation of baseline data from a randomized controlled trial.Setting & ParticipantsThe STOP-DKD (Simultaneous Risk Factor Control Using Telehealth to Slow Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease) study is a completed randomized controlled trial of Duke University primary care patients with diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease. Participants underwent survey assessments inclusive of measures of socio-demographics and medication adherence.PredictorsRace (Black or non-Black) and socioeconomic status (income, education, and employment).OutcomesThe primary outcomes were based on 4 questions related to spending, asking about reduced spending on basic/leisure needs or using savings to pay for medical care. Participants were also asked if they skipped medications to make them last longer.Analytical ApproachMultivariable logistic regression stratified by race and adjusted for age, sex, and household chaos was used to determine the independent effects of SES components on spending.ResultsOf 263 STOP-DKD participants, 144 (55%) were Black. Compared with non-Blacks, Black participants had lower incomes with similar levels of education and employment but were more likely to reduce spending on basic needs (29.2% vs 13.5%), leisure activities (35.4% vs 20.2%), and to skip medications (31.3% vs 15.1%), all P < 0.05. After multivariable adjustment, Black race was associated with increased odds of reduced basic spending (OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.14-4.60), reduced leisure spending (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.05-3.58), and skipping medications (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.12-4.04).LimitationsThis study was conducted at a single site in Durham, North Carolina, and nearly exclusively included insured patients. Further, the impact of the number of comorbid conditions, medication costs, or copayments was not assessed.ConclusionsIn primary care patients with multiple chronic diseases, Black patients are more likely to reduce spending on basic needs and leisure activities to afford their medical care than non-Black patients of equivalent SES.ClinicalTrials.gov IdentifierNCT01829256

Effects of education, income, and occupation on prevalence and symptoms of knee osteoarthritis

To examine the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) as measured by three components of education level, income level, and occupation on prevalence and symptom severity of knee osteoarthritis (OA) and to determine which of these factors has the strongest association. We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that were collected between 2010 and 2012. Male and female participants 50 years or older were included. Analyses to examine the associations of the three SES components with prevalence and symptom severity of knee OA were performed. A total 9,071 participants was included in the study. As expected, lower education, lower income level, and non-managerial or no job were associated with higher prevalence of knee OA and knee symptoms. Among the three SES components, lower education was most strongly associated with knee pain and radiographic knee OA after adjusting for the other two. Lower education level is the component of SES that most strongly relates to higher prevalence of knee OA and knee symptoms. Improving societal education level might decrease the socioeconomic burden of knee OA.

Socioeconomic Status and Rurality Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer.

Describe the relationship among rurality, socioeconomic status (SES), and patient/tumor characteristics in patients presenting with head and neck cancer. Retrospective single-institution study. Academic tertiary-level medical center. Patients with head and neck cancer presenting between 2011 and 2015 were included. Stage at presentation, insurance status, and demographic characteristics were collected. Rurality was measured through Rural-Urban Continuum Codes. SES was measured by SES index scores of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which incorporate multiple components of SES. Associations among rurality, SES, and patient/tumor characteristics were assessed with univariate and multivariable statistics. All P values were calculated via 2-sided hypotheses. The threshold for statistical significance was set at P < .05. Statistical analyses were conducted with Stata/SE 14 (StataCorp). The study included 266 patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer between 2011 and 2015. Rural residence was associated with lower SES (P < .001). T and N stages were associated with rurality (P = .036 and .050, respectively). Higher educational status was associated with oropharyngeal cancer (P = .005). Rurality and SES have distinct impacts on patients with head and neck cancer. Specifically, rurality is associated with tumor stage among patients with head and neck cancer. Knowledge of disparities among patients with rural residency may help target interventions to facilitate earlier diagnosis.

Health Disparities in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Health Disparities in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Systematic Overview of Meta-Analyses on Socioeconomic Status, Cognitive Ability, and Achievement: The Need to Focus on Specific Pathways.

Meta-analyses on the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and performance on measures of cognitive ability and achievement arrive at the same general conclusion of a small to medium association. Advancements in methods make possible for meta-analyses to examine specific pathways linking SES to cognitive ability and achievement, as well as the moderators of these pathways. In this study, we conducted a systematic overview of meta-analyses on SES to address three research questions: 1) what is the direction and overall strength of association between SES and performance on measures of cognitive ability and achievement, and how precise are the effect sizes reported? 2) to what extent have meta-analyses examined moderation by components of SES, age, sex, and race/ethnicity? and 3) to what extent have meta-analyses examined mechanisms linking SES to cognitive ability and achievement? We conducted a systematic search using online archives (i.e., PsycINFO, ERIC, PubMed, Sociological Abstracts, and Web of Science), searching issues in Psychological Bulletin and Review of Educational Research, and examining references and citations. We identified 14 meta-analyses published between 1982 and 2019. These meta-analyses consistently reported positive associations of small to medium magnitude, indicating that SES is a meaningful contributor to the development of cognitive ability and achievement. Fewer meta-analyses reported evidence of moderation by age, sex, and race/ethnicity. None of the meta-analyses directly examined mechanisms, but provided evidence of possible mechanisms for future research. We suggest that meta-analyses can increase their contribution to future research, interventions, and policy by narrowing their focus on specific pathways.

Education and income might protect the brain differently against white matter lesions in aging

AbstractBackgroundA lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poorer cognitive health in old age and with more white matter lesions in the brain. It is not clear whether education and income, the two major components of SES, contribute differently to cognitive health, given that education is believed to build up a cognitive reserve. Aim of the study was to investigate how education and income independently contribute to cognitive functioning and brain white matter in aging.MethodParticipants (age 40‐80 years) of the representative population‐based LIFE‐Adult study completed the CERAD neurological test battery and underwent MR scanning (n=2,385 without neurological diseases). The association between education and income on cognitive performance and white matter lesions was analyzed via generalized linear regression modelling adjusted for age, gender, APOE e4 allele and household size. We further tested whether health (heart disease, high blood pressure, elevated blood lipids, diabetes, depression) could explain the associations.ResultHigher education as well as higher income were significantly associated with better performance in the CERAD and fewer total white matter hypointensities (WMH). Only higher education was associated with a lower Fazekas scale score, while only higher income was associated with fewer periventricular WMH. With increasing age, the protective effect of both, higher education and higher income, on performance in the Trail Making Test B and the total white matter volume increased. Older age additionally increased the protective effect of higher income on fewer total and periventricular WMH. The age‐related association between income and periventricular WMH was largely explained by high blood pressure.ConclusionOur findings suggest that higher education and higher income may protect cognitive functioning by a smaller loss of white matter in aging. While education is associated with WMH in general, income is specifically associated with periventricular WMH, an ageing‐related association that seems to be related to blood pressure. As none of the other health indicators explained our findings, more research is necessary to investigate what aspects of low educational attainment and low income bring about WMH.

The Relation between Parents’ Child-Rearing Behavior and Their Socioeconomic Status in a Developing Country Context: A Case from West Bengal, India

This study examines variation in parents’ child-rearing behavior based on their socioeconomic status (SES) in the context of a developing country. The impact of different aspects of SES on the probability of practicing several child-rearing behaviors was examined individually based on a data of 1373 households in West Bengal, India. The study found that components of SES explain great shares of the variance in parents’ child-rearing behaviors and the variation was bi-dimensional. There was variation between parental practices due to a change in SES, and also each practice was affected differently for each component of SES. Mother’s level of education was found to play a consistent and most significant role in improving parent-child regular interaction.

Disentangling the Relations Between Different Components of Family Socioeconomic Status and Chinese Preschoolers' School Readiness.

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has been frequently linked to children's early development. Treating SES as an aggregated variable has many issues, as different components of SES may relate to child outcomes through divergent mechanisms. The purpose of the study was to examine whether parents' engagement in home learning activities and children's participation in extracurricular activities (EAs) would function as pathways through which individual SES components related to children's school readiness. A total of 588 families with preschool-aged children were recruited from Guangdong province in China. Children's receptive vocabulary, Chinese reading, and early math skills were individually assessed at three time points, and children's social skills were rated by parents. Parents reported their engagement in home learning activities with children and their children's participation in EAs. The results showed that all three components of family SES were related to multiple aspects of children's school readiness, but through different pathways. Parental income was related to children's school readiness through EA participation only; parental education and occupational status were associated with school readiness via both parental engagement and child EA participation. The findings suggest that considering SES components separately will produce a more nuanced understanding of the divergent pathways through which family SES may relate to children's school readiness. Chinese government may provide parent education programs focused on cognitive stimulation for low-SES families to promote children's school readiness. Furthermore, the government needs to ensure children's equal access to EAs to prevent increasing the developmental gap among children from discrepant socioeconomic backgrounds.