Family socioeconomic status and mental health in Chinese adolescents: the multiple mediating role of social relationships

• Published in: Journal of public health (Oxford, England) Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 823 - 833
• Main Authors: Li, Jing, Wang, Jing, Li, Jia-Yu, Qian, Sheng, Ling, Rui-Zhe, Jia, Rui-Xia, Wang, Ying-Quan, Xu, Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.12.2022
• Subjects: Adolescent; Asian People; China - epidemiology; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Mental Health; Social Class; China; mediation; social relationships; adolescents; socioeconomic status; mental health
• ISSN: 1741-3842; 1741-3850
• DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab280

The purpose of this study is to explore whether social relationships of family and school contexts mediate the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on Chinese adolescents' mental health. A school-based study was conducted among a sample aged 13-18 in East China (n = 6902). We used scales for measuring social relationships and self-rated mental health. Family SES was computed from subjective socioeconomic status, education and occupation of parents.The mediation model was tested by using Path Analysis in IBM SPSS-Amos. The results showed that SES can significantly influence adolescent mental health through parent-child relationship, student-teacher relationship and student-student relationship. The total effect, direct effect and total indirect effect were -0.209 (95% CI = -0.299, -0.136), -0.090 (95% CI = -0.174, -0.007), -0.119 (95% CI = -0.187, -0.078) for boys, and -0.337 (95% CI = -0.478, -0.230), -0.132 (95% CI = -0.283, 0.010), -0.205 (95% CI = -0.351, -0.085) for girls. The link between SES and adolescent mental health can be explained by social relationships. Focusing on the parent-child, student-student and student-teacher relationship interventions may contribute to improving the mental health of Chinese adolescents, especially in low socioeconomic groups, as well as female students.