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Socio-economic differences in health risk behavior in adolescence: Do they exist?

Author

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  • Tuinstra, Jolanda
  • Groothoff, Johan W.
  • van den Heuvel, Wim J. A.
  • Post, Doeke

Abstract

Socio-economic differences in risk behaviors in adolescence can be seen as a prelude to the re-emergence of socio-economic health differences in adulthood. We studied whether or not socio-economic differences in health risk behaviors are present in male and female adolescents in The Netherlands. The relation between socio-economic status (SES) and health risk behaviors was examined, by testing both the main and interaction effects of SES and gender on separate health risk behaviors on one hand, and on the behaviors cumulatively on the other. The data were derived from 1984 adolescents in the four northern provinces of The Netherlands. SES was measured by means of the educational level and the occupational status of both parents. Four health risk behaviors were included in this study: smoking, alcohol consumption, soft drug use, and (no) physical exercise. We found that the relationships between SES and health risk behaviors are not as linear as is often found in adulthood. Our findings can be characterised overall by an absence of relationship between SES and health risk behaviors. The only exception applies to sport, which is linearly related to SES. Adolescents in the lower SES groups engage in sport less than adolescents in the higher SES groups. There was an irregular relationship between the father's occupational status and the adolescents' smoking and drinking. Adolescents in the highest, lowest and middle of the six SES groups have the highest rates of health risk behaviors. All observed relationships are similar for both male and female adolescents. A relationship between gender and the separate health risk behaviors was found only for alcohol consumption and drug use. For both male adolescents showed higher rates of risk behavior. Males also scored higher on the cumulative health risk behaviors than their female counterparts. The findings of this study do not support the hypothesis of latent differences in adolescence.

Suggested Citation

  • Tuinstra, Jolanda & Groothoff, Johan W. & van den Heuvel, Wim J. A. & Post, Doeke, 1998. "Socio-economic differences in health risk behavior in adolescence: Do they exist?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 67-74, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:47:y:1998:i:1:p:67-74
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    Cited by:

    1. Edoka, I.P., 2012. "Decomposing Differences in Cotinine Distribution between Children and Adolescents from Different Socioeconomic Backgrounds," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 12/29, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    2. Brock Boudreau & Christiane Poulin, 2009. "An examination of the validity of the Family Affluence Scale II (FAS II) in a general adolescent population of Canada," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 29-42, October.
    3. Richter, Matthias & Erhart, Michael & Vereecken, Carine A. & Zambon, Alessio & Boyce, William & Gabhainn, Saoirse Nic, 2009. "The role of behavioural factors in explaining socio-economic differences in adolescent health: A multilevel study in 33 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 396-403, August.
    4. Jung, Se-Hwan & Tsakos, Georgios & Sheiham, Aubrey & Ryu, Jae-In & Watt, Richard G., 2010. "Socio-economic status and oral health-related behaviours in Korean adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1780-1788, June.
    5. Matthias Richter & Emmanuel Kuntsche & Margaretha Looze & Timo-Kolja Pförtner, 2013. "Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent alcohol use in Germany between 1994 and 2006," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(5), pages 777-784, October.
    6. Andrea Geckova & Jitse Dijk & Johan Groothoff & Doeke Post, 2002. "Socio-economic differences in health risk behaviour and attitudes towards health risk behaviour among Slovak adolescents," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 47(4), pages 233-239, July.
    7. Ritterman, Miranda Lucia & Fernald, Lia C. & Ozer, Emily J. & Adler, Nancy E. & Gutierrez, Juan Pablo & Syme, S. Leonard, 2009. "Objective and subjective social class gradients for substance use among Mexican adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1843-1851, May.
    8. Ferdinand Salonna & Andrea Geckova & Ivan Zezula & Maria Sleskova & Johan Groothoff & Sijmen Reijneveld & Jitse Dijk, 2012. "Does social support mediate or moderate socioeconomic differences in self-rated health among adolescents?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 57(3), pages 609-617, June.
    9. Fred C. Pampel & Damien Bricard & Myriam Khlat & Stéphane Legleye, 2017. "Life Course Changes in Smoking by Gender and Education: A Cohort Comparison Across France and the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 36(3), pages 309-330, June.

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