Impact of Objective and Subjective Social Status on Obesity in a Biracial Cohort of Adolescents

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the associations between socioeconomic status (SES), two levels of subjective social status (SSS), and adolescent obesity. Research Methods and Procedures: Cross‐sectional study of 1491 black and white adolescents attending public school in a suburban school district in Greater Cincinnati, Ohio. BMI ≥95th percentile derived from measured height and weight defined overweight. Students rated SSS on separate 10‐point scales for society and school. A parent provided information on parent education and household income for SES. Results: Although there were no sex differences in SES, black students were more likely to come from families with less well‐educated parents and lower incomes (p < 0.001). Black girls had the lowest societal SSS (p = 0.003), lowest school SSS (p = 0.046), and highest BMI (p < 0.001). Prevalence of overweight was highest among black girls (26.0%) and boys (26.2%), intermediate for white boys (17.2%), and least for white girls (11.6%). Logistic regression modeling revealed that parent education, household income, and school SSS were each associated with overweight. In a fully adjusted model, school SSS retained its association to overweight (odds ratio, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.06, 1.26) independent of SES. The association of school SSS was strongest among white girls, intermediate for white and black boys, and absent for black girls. Discussion: Perceptions of social stratification are independently associated with overweight. There were important racial and sex differences in the social status‐overweight association. SSS in the more immediate, local reference group, the school, had the strongest association to overweight.

Does Food Group Consumption Vary by Differences in Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Lifestyle Factors in Young Adults? The Bogalusa Heart Study

“…The basis for ethnic disparities in food consumption could be attributed to the fact that a larger number of African Americans were in the lower income group than European Americans (as observed in our study and also in previously published studies [58]) and hence may have consumed poorer diets (19) due to their inability to afford more healthful foods. Some other environmental factors like geographic reasons may also be responsible for these ethnic differences in food consumption.…”

Socioeconomic status and health: The role of subjective social status

“…Nevertheless, an increasing body of research, mostly cross-sectional, indicates that SSS (measured as a ladder score) relates over and above objective SES markers to self-rated health (Franzini & FernandezEsquer, 2006;Hu et al, 2005;Operario, Adler, & Williams, 2004;Ostrove et al, 2000;SinghManoux, Marmot, & Adler, 2005), mental health (Franzini & Fernandez-Esquer, 2006;SinghManoux et al, 2005), heart rate and sleep latency (Adler, Epel, Castellazzo, & Ickovics, 2000), cortisol levels (Wright & Steptoe, 2005), and dental outcomes (Sanders, Slade, Turrell, Spencer, & Marcenes, 2006). Also, there is evidence that SSS relates to adolescent health (Goodman, Adler, Daniels, Morrison, Slap, & Dolan, 2003;Goodman, Adler, Kawachi, Frazier, Huang, & Colditz, 2001). In contrast, research has shown that SSS is not related at all to body mass index, sleep quality, and resting systolic blood pressure in women , angina and respiratory illness in women (Singh-Manoux et al, 2003), and difficulties in Activities of Daily Living (Hu et al, 2005).…”

Objective and Subjective Socioeconomic Position and Current Smoking Among Korean Adolescents

“…According to a recent study, the FAS appeared to be useful as a measure of SEP for Korean adolescents (Cho and Khang, 2010). However, there is growing evidence that youths' smoking was more significantly associated with subjective SEP than objective SEP itself (Goodman et al, 2003;Adler et al, 2000). Although the objective SEP is negatively related with smoking during adolescence , the objective SEP ignores the personal perception of one's place in the society (Goodman et al, 2003;Goodman et al, 2007).…”

“…However, there is growing evidence that youths' smoking was more significantly associated with subjective SEP than objective SEP itself (Goodman et al, 2003;Adler et al, 2000). Although the objective SEP is negatively related with smoking during adolescence , the objective SEP ignores the personal perception of one's place in the society (Goodman et al, 2003;Goodman et al, 2007). In adolescence, one's social position among peers may be of a greater importance to health outcome than the parent's objective social position (Glendinning et al, 1995).…”

“…As adolescents may be less aware of objective SEPs which are mainly composed of parental SEP, the perceived SEP may better indicate how adolescents identify their actual economic circumstances (Goodman et al, 2003;Karvonen and Rahkonen, 2011). However, previous findings examining the association between smoking and SEP have been mainly focusing on objective SEP indicators Sarkar et al, 2013).…”