Perceived family and individual social status and its association with depression and suicidality in an adolescent clinical sample.

There is a well-documented association between subjective social status (SSS) and depression among adults. Yet, the research on SSS and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescent minority populations is limited. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the adolescent's SSS and mental health in an adolescent sample. A total of 197 adolescents ages 12 to 18 years (M age = 14.58; SD = 1.54) and their parents were recruited in urban outpatient clinics. Sociodemographics and measures of depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and SSS were collected in a cross-sectional survey and through chart review. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to calculate statistical associations with depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Significant negative associations were found between SSS and depression, suicidal ideation, and prior suicidal attempts, independent of socioeconomic status. Consideration should be given to assessing measures of social rank to appraise risk in adolescent outpatient clinical settings.

[1]  A. Caspi,et al.  Adolescents’ perceptions of family social status correlate with health and life chances: A twin difference longitudinal cohort study , 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[2]  M. Srinivasan,et al.  Measuring subjective social status in children of diverse societies , 2019, PloS one.

[3]  Yunyu Xiao,et al.  Trends of Suicidal Behaviors Among High School Students in the United States: 1991–2017 , 2019, Pediatrics.

[4]  W. Cui,et al.  Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms in a Chinese Low– and Middle– Income Sample: The Indirect Effects of Maternal Care and Adolescent Sense of Coherence , 2019, Front. Psychol..

[5]  K. Robb,et al.  An Examination of Social Comparison and Suicide Ideation Through the Lens of the Integrated Motivational–Volitional Model of Suicidal Behavior , 2019, Suicide & life-threatening behavior.

[6]  T. Joiner,et al.  Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time , 2018 .

[7]  M. Olfson,et al.  National Trends in the Prevalence and Treatment of Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults , 2016, Pediatrics.

[8]  Sara B. Johnson,et al.  Subjective Social Status and Psychological Distress in Mothers of Young Children , 2016, Maternal and Child Health Journal.

[9]  G. Dunn,et al.  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. , 2016, Social science & medicine.

[10]  C. Blease,et al.  Too Many ‘Friends,’ Too Few ‘Likes’? Evolutionary Psychology and ‘Facebook Depression’ , 2015 .

[11]  Michael W. Kraus,et al.  The undervalued self: social class and self-evaluation , 2014, Front. Psychol..

[12]  K. Hunt,et al.  Adolescent socio-economic and school-based social status, health and well-being , 2014, Social science & medicine.

[13]  Matthew K Nock,et al.  Improving the short-term prediction of suicidal behavior. , 2014, American journal of preventive medicine.

[14]  J. McGrath,et al.  Subjective socioeconomic status and adolescent health: a meta-analysis. , 2014, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[15]  E. D. Klonsky,et al.  Differentiating suicide attempters from suicide ideators: a critical frontier for suicidology research. , 2014, Suicide & life-threatening behavior.

[16]  J. Davila,et al.  Negative Social Comparison on Facebook and Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Mechanism , 2013 .

[17]  Kate E A Saunders,et al.  Self-harm and suicide in adolescents , 2012, The Lancet.

[18]  K. Hawton,et al.  Distinguishing adolescents who think about self-harm from those who engage in self-harm. , 2012, The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science.

[19]  R. O’Connor The integrated motivational-volitional model of suicidal behavior. , 2011, Crisis.

[20]  R. O’Connor Towards an integrated motivational-volitional model of suicidal behaviour. , 2011 .

[21]  J. Sareen,et al.  The association between income and distress, mental disorders, and suicidal ideation and attempts: findings from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys. , 2010, The Journal of clinical psychiatry.

[22]  Nicholas Tarrier,et al.  Resilience as positive coping appraisals: Testing the schematic appraisals model of suicide (SAMS). , 2010, Behaviour research and therapy.

[23]  N. Adler,et al.  Health disparities across the lifespan: Meaning, methods, and mechanisms , 2010, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[24]  S. Fekete,et al.  Deliberate self-harm within an international community sample of young people: comparative findings from the Child & Adolescent Self-harm in Europe (CASE) Study. , 2008, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[25]  P. Gooding,et al.  Suicide risk in schizophrenia: explanatory models and clinical implications, The Schematic Appraisal Model of Suicide (SAMS). , 2008, Psychology and psychotherapy.

[26]  Matthias Richter,et al.  Researching health inequalities in adolescents: the development of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) family affluence scale. , 2008, Social science & medicine.

[27]  N. Adler,et al.  Perceived socioeconomic status: a new type of identity that influences adolescents' self-rated health. , 2007, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[28]  K. Hawton,et al.  Suicide in adolescents: using life charts to understand the suicidal process. , 2007, Journal of affective disorders.

[29]  N. Allen,et al.  Darwinian models of depression: A review of evolutionary accounts of mood and mood disorders , 2006, Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.

[30]  N. Allen,et al.  The social risk hypothesis of depressed mood: evolutionary, psychosocial, and neurobiological perspectives. , 2003, Psychological bulletin.

[31]  E. Keverne,et al.  Are subordinates always stressed? a comparative analysis of rank differences in cortisol levels among primates , 2003, Hormones and Behavior.

[32]  Karen Rodham,et al.  Deliberate self harm in adolescents: self report survey in schools in England , 2002, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[33]  R. Spitzer,et al.  The patient health questionnaire for adolescents: validation of an instrument for the assessment of mental disorders among adolescent primary care patients. , 2002, The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

[34]  R. Spitzer,et al.  The PHQ-9 , 2001, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[35]  R. Sapolsky Why Stress Is Bad for Your Brain , 1996, Science.

[36]  P. Gilbert,et al.  The Social Competition Hypothesis of Depression , 1994, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[37]  V. Patel,et al.  Mental disorders: equity and social determinants. , 2010 .

[38]  R. Bradley,et al.  Socioeconomic status and child development. , 2002, Annual review of psychology.

[39]  C. Barus An Example of Torsional Viscous Retrogression. , 2022, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.