IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v91y2013icp25-31.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Absolute and relative family affluence and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents

Author

Listed:
  • Elgar, Frank J.
  • De Clercq, Bart
  • Schnohr, Christina W.
  • Bird, Phillippa
  • Pickett, Kate E.
  • Torsheim, Torbjørn
  • Hofmann, Felix
  • Currie, Candace

Abstract

Previous research on the links between income inequality and health and socioeconomic differences in health suggests that relative differences in affluence impact health and well-being more than absolute affluence. This study explored whether self-reported psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents relate more closely to relative affluence (i.e., relative deprivation or rank affluence within regions or schools) than to absolute affluence. Data on family material assets and psychosomatic symptoms were collected from 48,523 adolescents in eight countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Scotland, Poland, Turkey, and Ukraine) as part of the 2009/10 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Multilevel regression analyses of the data showed that relative deprivation (Yitzhaki Index, calculated in regions and in schools) and rank affluence (in regions) (1) related more closely to symptoms than absolute affluence, and (2) related to symptoms after differences in absolute affluence were held constant. However, differences in family material assets, whether they are measured in absolute or relative terms, account for a significant variation in adolescent psychosomatic symptoms. Conceptual and empirical issues relating to the use of material affluence indices to estimate socioeconomic position are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Elgar, Frank J. & De Clercq, Bart & Schnohr, Christina W. & Bird, Phillippa & Pickett, Kate E. & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Hofmann, Felix & Currie, Candace, 2013. "Absolute and relative family affluence and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 25-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:91:y:2013:i:c:p:25-31
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.04.030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613002645
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.04.030?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Indicators 2012," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6014, December.
    2. Torsheim, Torbjorn & Currie, Candace & Boyce, William & Kalnins, Ilze & Overpeck, Mary & Haugland, Siren, 2004. "Material deprivation and self-rated health: a multilevel study of adolescents from 22 European and North American countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 1-12, July.
    3. Subramanyam, Malavika & Kawachi, Ichiro & Berkman, Lisa & Subramanian, S.V., 2009. "Relative deprivation in income and self-rated health in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 327-334, August.
    4. Currie, Candace & Molcho, Michal & Boyce, William & Holstein, Bjørn & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Richter, Matthias, 2008. "Researching health inequalities in adolescents: The development of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Family Affluence Scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1429-1436, March.
    5. Mackenbach, Johan P., 2012. "The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: The explanation of a paradox," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(4), pages 761-769.
    6. Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1979. "Relative Deprivation and the Gini Coefficient," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(2), pages 321-324.
    7. Adjaye-Gbewonyo, Kafui & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2012. "Use of the Yitzhaki Index as a test of relative deprivation for health outcomes: A review of recent literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 129-137.
    8. Reagan, Patricia B. & Salsberry, Pamela J. & Olsen, Randall J., 2007. "Does the measure of economic disadvantage matter? Exploring the effect of individual and relative deprivation on intrauterine growth restriction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 2016-2029, May.
    9. West, Patrick & Sweeting, Helen, 2004. "Evidence on equalisation in health in youth from the West of Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 13-27, July.
    10. William Boyce & Torbjorn Torsheim & Candace Currie & Alessio Zambon, 2006. "The Family Affluence Scale as a Measure of National Wealth: Validation of an Adolescent Self-Report Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 78(3), pages 473-487, September.
    11. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
    12. C. Schnohr & S. Kreiner & E. Due & C. Currie & W. Boyce & F. Diderichsen, 2008. "Differential Item Functioning of a Family Affluence Scale: Validation Study on Data from HBSC 2001/02," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 89(1), pages 79-95, October.
    13. Ed Diener & Ed Sandvik & Larry Seidlitz & Marissa Diener, 1993. "The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 195-223, 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. Hilda Osafo Hounkpatin & Alex Wood & Gordon Brown & Graham Dunn, 2015. "Why does Income Relate to Depressive Symptoms? Testing the Income Rank Hypothesis Longitudinally," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 637-655, November.
    2. Jane E. K. Hartley & Kate Levin & Candace Currie, 2016. "A new version of the HBSC Family Affluence Scale - FAS III: Scottish Qualitative Findings from the International FAS Development Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(1), pages 233-245, March.
    3. Myra Hamilton & Gerry Redmond, 2020. "Are Young Carers Less Engaged in School than Non-Carers? Evidence from a Representative Australian Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(1), pages 33-49, February.
    4. Maartje Boer & Concepción Moreno-Maldonado & Maxim Dierckens & Michela Lenzi & Candace Currie & Caroline Residori & Lucia Bosáková & Paola Berchialla & Tamsyn Eida & Gonneke Stevens, 2024. "The Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for the Construction of the Family Affluence Scale: Findings from 16 Countries," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(1), pages 395-418, February.
    5. Hounkpatin, Hilda Osafo & Wood, Alex M. & Dunn, Graham, 2016. "Does income relate to health due to psychosocial or material factors? Consistent support for the psychosocial hypothesis requires operationalization with income rank not the Yitzhaki Index," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 76-84.
    6. Elgar, Frank J. & Pickett, William & Pförtner, Timo-Kolja & Gariépy, Geneviève & Gordon, David & Georgiades, Kathy & Davison, Colleen & Hammami, Nour & MacNeil, Allison H. & Azevedo Da Silva, Marine &, 2021. "Relative food insecurity, mental health and wellbeing in 160 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    7. Sun, Yu & You, Wen, 2016. "Relative-deprivation effects on child health in China," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235926, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Concepción Moreno-Maldonado & Francisco Rivera & Pilar Ramos & Carmen Moreno, 2018. "Measuring the Socioeconomic Position of Adolescents: A Proposal for a Composite Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 517-538, April.
    9. Levine, Cynthia S. & Miller, Gregory E. & Shalowitz, Madeleine U. & Story, Rachel E. & Manczak, Erika M. & Hayen, Robin & Hoffer, Lauren C. & Le, Van & Vause, Katherine J. & Chen, Edith, 2019. "Academic disparities and health: How gender-based disparities in schools relate to boys' and girls’ health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 126-134.
    10. Gerry Redmond & Jasmine Huynh & Vanessa Maurici, 2018. "How Big is the Gap in Wellbeing between Marginalised and Non-Marginalised Young People as They Approach Adolescence? Evidence from a National Survey of 9–14 Year Old Australians," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(2), pages 459-485, April.
    11. Gerry Redmond & Irene García-Moya & Carmen Moreno & Anna Mooney & Fiona Brooks, 2022. "Gender Differences in the Relationship between Pressure from Schoolwork and Health Complaints: a Three Country Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(3), pages 763-780, June.
    12. Frank J. Elgar & Britt McKinnon & Torbjørn Torsheim & Christina Warrer Schnohr & Joanna Mazur & Franco Cavallo & Candace Currie, 2016. "Patterns of Socioeconomic Inequality in Adolescent Health Differ According to the Measure of Socioeconomic Position," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1169-1180, July.
    13. Rikuya Hosokawa & Toshiki Katsura, 2018. "Effect of socioeconomic status on behavioral problems from preschool to early elementary school – A Japanese longitudinal study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-23, May.
    14. Elgar, Frank J. & Xie, Annie & Pförtner, Timo-Kolja & White, James & Pickett, Kate E., 2016. "Relative deprivation and risk factors for obesity in Canadian adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 111-118.

    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. Yu-Chen Lin, 2011. "Assessing the Use of the Family Affluence Scale as Socioeconomic Indicators for Researching Health Inequalities in Taiwan Adolescents," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 463-475, July.
    2. Sakketa Tekalign Gutu & Gerber Nicolas, 2018. "Working Paper 296 - Relative Deprivation and Well-Being of the Rural Youth," Working Paper Series 2423, African Development Bank.
    3. Tommy Haugan & Sally Muggleton & Arnhild Myhr, 2021. "Psychological distress in late adolescence: The role of inequalities in family affluence and municipal socioeconomic characteristics in Norway," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-25, July.
    4. Sun, Yu & You, Wen, 2016. "Relative-deprivation effects on child health in China," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235926, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Elgar, Frank J. & Xie, Annie & Pförtner, Timo-Kolja & White, James & Pickett, Kate E., 2016. "Relative deprivation and risk factors for obesity in Canadian adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 111-118.
    6. Esposito, Lucio & Villaseñor, Adrián, 2017. "Relative deprivation: Measurement issues and predictive role for body image dissatisfaction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 49-57.
    7. Miething, Alexander, 2013. "A matter of perception: Exploring the role of income satisfaction in the income–mortality relationship in German survey data 1995–2010," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 72-79.
    8. Sakketa, T.G., 2018. "Relative Deprivation in Income, Assets, and Social Capital: Motivational and Deterrent Impacts on the Well-Being of Rural Youth," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277116, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Yang Liu & Mei Wang & Jorma Tynjälä & Jari Villberg & Yan Lv & Lasse Kannas, 2013. "Socioeconomic inequalities in alcohol use of adolescents: the differences between China and Finland," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(2), pages 177-185, April.
    10. Zhilin Tang, 2014. "They Are Richer But Are They Happier? Subjective Well-Being of Chinese Citizens Across the Reform Era," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 145-164, May.
    11. Gero, Krisztina & Yazawa, Aki & Kondo, Naoki & Hanazato, Masamichi & Kondo, Katsunori & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2022. "Comparison of three indices of relative income deprivation in predicting health status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    12. Currie, Candace & Molcho, Michal & Boyce, William & Holstein, Bjørn & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Richter, Matthias, 2008. "Researching health inequalities in adolescents: The development of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Family Affluence Scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1429-1436, March.
    13. Pak, Tae-Young & Choung, Youngjoo, 2020. "Relative deprivation and suicide risk in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    14. Frank J. Elgar & Britt McKinnon & Torbjørn Torsheim & Christina Warrer Schnohr & Joanna Mazur & Franco Cavallo & Candace Currie, 2016. "Patterns of Socioeconomic Inequality in Adolescent Health Differ According to the Measure of Socioeconomic Position," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1169-1180, July.
    15. Heidi Carlerby & Eija Viitasara & Anders Knutsson & Katja Gillander Gådin, 2011. "Subjective health complaints among boys and girls in the Swedish HBSC study: focussing on parental foreign background," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(5), pages 457-464, October.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Concepción Moreno-Maldonado & Francisco Rivera & Pilar Ramos & Carmen Moreno, 2018. "Measuring the Socioeconomic Position of Adolescents: A Proposal for a Composite Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 517-538, April.
    19. Pavic Simetin, Ivana & Kern, Josipa & Kuzman, Marina & Pförtner, Timo-Kolja, 2013. "Inequalities in Croatian pupils' risk behaviors associated to socioeconomic environment at school and area level: A multilevel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 154-161.
    20. Elgar, Frank J. & Pickett, William & Pförtner, Timo-Kolja & Gariépy, Geneviève & Gordon, David & Georgiades, Kathy & Davison, Colleen & Hammami, Nour & MacNeil, Allison H. & Azevedo Da Silva, Marine &, 2021. "Relative food insecurity, mental health and wellbeing in 160 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).

    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:91:y:2013:i:c:p:25-31. 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.