Relative Deprivation and Risky Behaviors

Relative deprivation has been associated with lower social and job satisfaction as well as adverse health outcomes. Using Add Health data, we examine whether a student's relative socioeconomic status (SES) has a direct effect on substance use. We advance the existing literature by addressing se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Authors Balsa, Ana I, French, Michael T, Regan, Tracy L
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2013
Subjects
Relative deprivation
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Summary:Relative deprivation has been associated with lower social and job satisfaction as well as adverse health outcomes. Using Add Health data, we examine whether a student's relative socioeconomic status (SES) has a direct effect on substance use. We advance the existing literature by addressing selection and simultaneity bias and by focusing on a reference group likely to exert the most influence on the respondents. We find that relative deprivation is positively associated with alcohol consumption, drinking to intoxication, and smoking for adolescent males, but not for females. Alternative variable definitions and robustness checks confirm these findings.