IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v63y2006i3p611-623.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The pros and cons of social relations: An analysis of adolescents' health complaints

Author

Listed:
  • Brolin Låftman, Sara
  • Östberg, Viveca

Abstract

This paper examines the association between social relations and psychological and psychosomatic health complaints, among adolescents in Sweden. We focused on relationships with parents, as well as relationships with peers in school and in leisure time. Both the structure and the content of relations were analysed. For the latter, we looked at supportive as well as strained relations. The data was the pooled child supplements of the Swedish welfare surveys conducted in 2000-2003. This constitutes a nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of 10-18-year-olds (n=5137), where information was collected from both adolescents and their parents. Results showed that young people's social relations with parents and peers clearly covaried with their health complaints. With regard to family relations and psychological complaints, the association was more pronounced for relational content than for relational structure. For instance, whether relations with parents were strained or not seemed more relevant than family structure and parental working hours. Moreover, strained relations were more strongly associated with health complaints, especially psychosomatic complaints, than were supportive relations. This applied to relationships with parents as well as with peers in school.

Suggested Citation

  • Brolin Låftman, Sara & Östberg, Viveca, 2006. "The pros and cons of social relations: An analysis of adolescents' health complaints," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 611-623, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:3:p:611-623
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00086-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sweeting, Helen & West, Patrick, 2003. "Sex differences in health at ages 11, 13 and 15," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 31-39, January.
    2. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Glass, R., 1999. "Social capital and self-rated health: A contextual analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1187-1193.
    3. Östberg, Viveca, 2003. "Children in classrooms: peer status, status distribution and mental well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 17-29, January.
    4. Sweeting, Helen & West, Patrick, 1995. "Family life and health in adolescence: A role for culture in the health inequalities debate," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 163-175, January.
    5. Berkman, Lisa F. & Glass, Thomas & Brissette, Ian & Seeman, Teresa E., 2000. "From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 843-857, September.
    6. Due, Pernille & Holstein, Bjørn & Lund, Rikke & Modvig, Jens & Avlund, Kirsten, 1999. "Social relations: network, support and relational strain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 661-673, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tomas Vaičiūnas & Kastytis Šmigelskas, 2019. "The Role of School-Related Well-Being for Adolescent Subjective Health Complaints," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Wiklund, Maria & Bengs, Carita & Malmgren-Olsson, Eva-Britt & Öhman, Ann, 2010. "Young women facing multiple and intersecting stressors of modernity, gender orders and youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1567-1575, November.
    3. Emma Fransson & Sara Brolin Låftman & Viveca Östberg & Anders Hjern & Malin Bergström, 2018. "The Living Conditions of Children with Shared Residence – the Swedish Example," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 861-883, June.
    4. Per E Gustafsson & Urban Janlert & Töres Theorell & Hugo Westerlund & Anne Hammarström, 2012. "Do Peer Relations in Adolescence Influence Health in Adulthood? Peer Problems in the School Setting and the Metabolic Syndrome in Middle-Age," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-10, June.
    5. Sara B. Låftman & Bitte Modin, 2017. "Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-10, October.
    6. Viveca Östberg & Sara B. Låftman & Bitte Modin & Petra Lindfors, 2018. "Bullying as a Stressor in Mid-Adolescent Girls and Boys–Associations with Perceived Stress, Recurrent Pain, and Salivary Cortisol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-11, February.
    7. Tide Garnow & Eva-Lena Einberg & Anna-Karin Edberg & Pernilla Garmy, 2021. "Sadness and Other Health Complaints among Swedish Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-10, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.
    2. Nasser Saad Al Kahtani & Sulphey M. M., 2022. "A Study on How Psychological Capital, Social Capital, Workplace Wellbeing, and Employee Engagement Relate to Task Performance," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    3. Sweeting, Helen & Hunt, Kate, 2014. "Adolescent socio-economic and school-based social status, health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 39-47.
    4. Damiano Fiorillo, 2020. "Reasons for unmet needs for health care: the role of social capital and social support in some western EU countries," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 79-98, March.
    5. Holly Heard & Bridget Gorman & Carolyn Kapinus, 2008. "Family Structure and Self-Rated Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 27(6), pages 773-797, December.
    6. Sheabo Dessalegn, S., 2017. "Social capital and maternal health care use in rural Ethiopia," Other publications TiSEM bb0ec225-4ec3-4028-90d6-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Fiorillo Damiano & Sabatini Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in individual health," wp.comunite 0073, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    8. Ferlander, Sara & Mäkinen, Ilkka Henrik, 2009. "Social capital, gender and self-rated health. Evidence from the Moscow Health Survey 2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1323-1332, November.
    9. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2011. "Quality and quantity: The role of social interactions in self-reported individual health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(11), pages 1644-1652.
    10. Pearl A. Dykstra & Christoph Bühler & Tineke Fokkema & Gregor Petrič & Rok Platinovšek & Tina Kogovšek & Valentina Hlebec, 2016. "Social network indices in the Generations and Gender Survey," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(35), pages 995-1036.
    11. Amanda R. Carrico & Heather Barnes Truelove & Nicholas E. Williams, 2019. "Social capital and resilience to drought among smallholding farmers in Sri Lanka," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 195-213, July.
    12. Carpiano, Richard M., 2006. "Toward a neighborhood resource-based theory of social capital for health: Can Bourdieu and sociology help?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 165-175, January.
    13. Tuula Oksanen & Ichiro Kawachi & Anne Kouvonen & Etsuji Suzuki & Soshi Takao & Noora Sjösten & Marianna Virtanen & Jaana Pentti & Jussi Vahtera & Mika Kivimäki, 2011. "Workplace Social Capital and Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication: A Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(9), pages 1-8, September.
    14. Veeshan Rayamajhee & Alok K. Bohara, 2019. "Do voluntary associations reduce hunger? An empirical exploration of the social capital- food security nexus among food impoverished households in western Nepal," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(2), pages 405-415, April.
    15. Legh-Jones, Hannah & Moore, Spencer, 2012. "Network social capital, social participation, and physical inactivity in an urban adult population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(9), pages 1362-1367.
    16. Morita, Ayako & Takano, Takehito & Nakamura, Keiko & Kizuki, Masashi & Seino, Kaoruko, 2010. "Contribution of interaction with family, friends and neighbours, and sense of neighbourhood attachment to survival in senior citizens: 5-year follow-up study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 543-549, February.
    17. Terese Sara Høj Jørgensen & Rikke Lund & Volkert Dirk Siersma & Charlotte Juul Nilsson, 2018. "Interplay between financial assets and social relations on decline in physical function and mortality among older people," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 133-142, June.
    18. Irwin, Jay & LaGory, Mark & Ritchey, Ferris & Fitzpatrick, Kevin, 2008. "Social assets and mental distress among the homeless: Exploring the roles of social support and other forms of social capital on depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 1935-1943, December.
    19. van Staveren, I.P. & Kabubo-Mariara, J., 2015. "Civic Agency: an Invisible Health Determinant," ISD Working Paper Series 2015-2, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    20. Shiovitz-Ezra, Sharon & Litwin, Howard, 2012. "Social network type and health-related behaviors: Evidence from an American national survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 901-904.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:63:y:2006:i:3:p:611-623. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.