Citation

Salonna F, Geckova AM, Zezula I, Sleskova M, Groothoff JW, Reijneveld SA, van Dijk JP. Int. J. Public Health 2012; 57(3): 609-617.

Affiliation

Graduate School Kosice Institute for Society and Health, P.J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovakia, ferdinand.salonna@upjs.sk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00038-011-0300-6

PMID

21912942

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Social support is assumed to be a protective social determinant of health. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore whether social support from the father, mother and friends mediates or moderates the association between socioeconomic position and self-rated health among adolescents. METHODS: The sample consisted of 1,863 secondary school students from the Kosice region in Slovakia (mean age 16.85; 53.3% females, response rate 98.9%). We assessed the mediation and moderation effects of social support from the mother, father and friends on the relation between socioeconomic position and self-rated health, performing binary logistic regression models. Socioeconomic position was measured by parents' education, the family affluence scale and financial strain. RESULTS: Social support from the father mediated the association between family affluence and self-rated health among both males and females and the association between financial strain and self-rated health among males only. No moderating effect of social support on socioeconomic differences in self-rated health was found. CONCLUSION: Father involvement seems to have the potential to mediate socioeconomic differences in health during adolescence.

Language: en