Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 26;19(13):7824.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137824.

The Influence of Family Socioeconomic Status on Adolescents' Mental Health in China

Dongliang Yang  1 , Shuxian Hu  2 , Mingna Li  3
Affiliations

The Influence of Family Socioeconomic Status on Adolescents' Mental Health in China

Dongliang Yang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Adolescent mental health is an important public health issue that cannot be ignored, and mental health issues are a major cause of physical illness in adolescents and children worldwide. In order to supplement relevant research and provide insightful policy suggestions to government, schools and families, this study investigated the nexus between family socioeconomic status and mental health for adolescents in China. Based on 7234 observations from the China Education Panel Survey, the paper estimated the effects of family socioeconomic status on adolescents' mental health using ordinary least squares. The effects of family income, parental education level, and parental occupation on adolescent mental health were estimated separately by the same method. Our findings suggest that family socioeconomic status has a significant positive effect on mental health of adolescents in China. This effect is heterogeneous depending on individuals' registered residence types and their participation in health courses. Finally, frequency of parent-child interaction and classmate interaction are shown to be potential mechanisms for the effect of family socioeconomic status on the mental health of Chinese adolescents.

Keywords: Adolescents; education; family socioeconomic status; heterogeneity; mental health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Kieling C., Baker-Henningham H., Belfer M., Conti G., Ertem I., Omigbodun O., Rohde L., Srinath S., Ulkuer N., Rahman A. Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: Evidence for action. Lancet. 2011;378:1515–1525. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60827-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fu X., Zhang K., Chen X. Mental Health Blue Book Chinese National Mental Health Development Report 2019–2020. Social Science Academic Press; Beijing, China: 2021.
    1. Matthews K., Gallo L. Psychological Perspectives on Pathways Linking Socioeconomic Status and Physical Health. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2011;62:501–530. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.031809.130711. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Grad F.P. The Preamble of the Constitution of the World Health Organization. Bull. World Health Organ. 2002;80:982. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen J., Wang T. Social adaptation and mental health. J. Southwest China Norm. Univ. 2004;3:34–39.

Publication types

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant number: 20JHQ079), Special Fund of Jilin University (Grant number: YSZ202109), Adolescent Development Program of Jilin Province (Grant number: 2022jqy-zj2).