Longitudinal associations between different measures of socioeconomic status and health behavior among adolescents. Data from a wealthy Italian region

Paolo Belardinelli, Aleksandra Torbica () and Giovanni Fattore

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We investigate the association between socio-economic status and unhealthy behaviors among adolescents. By using different measures of socio-economic status, we capture both subjective aspects, as operationalized by perceived family affluence, and objective aspects, such as parents' educational levels and family affluence scale. We use data from a sample of 11,623 adolescents who participated in the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in 2007, 2010, and 2014 in the Lombardy region of Italy. Results show that all of our measures of socio-economic status are correlated with unhealthy behaviors among adolescents. In particular, perceiving a family affluence below average is significantly correlated with a higher probability of reporting all of the unhealthy behaviors included in our analysis. Having at least one parent with university education significantly decreases the odds of being obese or overweight, having an unbalance diet, being physically inactive, and reporting sedentary behaviors. However, adolescents with at least one university educated parent are more likely to make use of cannabis. When controlling for all of our SES measures simultaneously, we find that family affluence scale is no longer significant in determining adolescents' behaviors. Our findings suggest that, when focusing on health inequalities among adolescents, self-perceptions and non-material dimensions of SES have more explanatory power than its material dimensions.

Keywords: adolescents; HBSC; health behavior; socio-economic status (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 6 pages
Date: 2022-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Preventive Medicine, 1, July, 2022, 160. ISSN: 0091-7435

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