Changes in family socio-economic status as predictors of self-efficacy in 13-year-old Polish adolescents

International Journal of Public Health, Apr 2013

Objectives The aim of this study is to determine the impact that raised mother’s education and a relative change in family affluence might have on adolescent general self-efficacy (GSE). Methods Data on 600 children born in Poland in January 1995 and their families were used. Data from early childhood and adolescence (2008) were considered and the change between these two periods was determined. Results Family affluence increased in 37.3 % of families with mothers, who had raised their education level (12.6 % of the sample), in comparison to 26.8 % in the group with no change, p < 0.001. The average GSE scores in those groups were 73.4 and 68.1, respectively, p < 0.001. In the best linear regression model adjusted for gender, the independent predictors of GSE turned out to be mother’s education change and the family’s current affluence. Conclusions Raised mother’s education level may encourage building up developmental assets in older children. Based on the structural model, where self-efficacy is the mediator of the relationship between socio-economic status change and the quality of life (KIDSCREEN-10) these results may be of importance in further research.

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Changes in family socio-economic status as predictors of self-efficacy in 13-year-old Polish adolescents

Joanna Mazur 0 Agnieszka Malkowska-Szkutnik 0 Izabela Tabak 0 0 J. Mazur (&) A. Malkowska-Szkutnik I. Tabak Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Institute of Mother and Child , Warsaw, Poland Objectives The aim of this study is to determine the impact that raised mother's education and a relative change in family affluence might have on adolescent general selfefficacy (GSE). Methods Data on 600 children born in Poland in January 1995 and their families were used. Data from early childhood and adolescence (2008) were considered and the change between these two periods was determined. Results Family affluence increased in 37.3 % of families with mothers, who had raised their education level (12.6 % of the sample), in comparison to 26.8 % in the group with no change, p 0.001. The average GSE scores in those groups were 73.4 and 68.1, respectively, p 0.001. In the best linear regression model adjusted for gender, the independent predictors of GSE turned out to be mother's education change and the family's current affluence. Conclusions Raised mother's education level may encourage building up developmental assets in older children. Based on the structural model, where self-efficacy is the mediator of the relationship between socio-economic status change and the quality of life (KIDSCREEN-10) these results may be of importance in further research. - In research concerning adolescent health, particular attention was focused currently on health-promoting personal characteristics (Morgan and Zigilio 2007). Self-efficacy defined as ones capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments (Bandura 1997) could be considered to be an important internal resource and health determinant. Self-efficacy contributed to academic achievements; pro-social behaviours; and in preventing some mental health problems in adolescents (Bandura et al. 1999). It was considered to be one of the most important determinants of health behaviour and was applied in various models of changes in health behaviour (Masten et al. 1990; Luszczynska et al. 2011). Self-efficacy could be associated with psychological aspects of health (e.g. subjective well-being; feeling happy; and perceived social support) (Natvig et al. 2003). Bandura described four sources of self-efficacy: performance accomplishments; verbal persuasion; emotional arousal; and vicarious experiences (Bandura 1976). The sources could be found in family, school and peer environments and, also, amongst macro-social determinants (van Dinther et al. 2011). Until now, not much attention was paid to the impact of family socioeconomic status (SES) on personal competences conducive to adolescent health. Although the relationship between personal characteristics and health was a subject of research in health psychology, the SES impact on health was included in sociological research. Only a few studies attempted to combine the integrated psycho-sociological model with research on social inequalities in the life course. Lundberg (1997) presented a conceptual model which linked childhood conditions; sense of coherence; adult social class; and adult health. He concluded that the sense of coherence might have been a factor involved in shaping of social inequalities in health. Most studies, which analysed social health inequalities, from the life course perspective, dealt with the impact of family SES in early childhood on adult health. There were less frequent attempts to assess the impact of early childhood factors on the health of older children and adolescents. Regardless of the target group, the impact of living conditions, in childhood, on later life ought to be discussed along with a number of indirect links with health (Kuh et al. 2003). Living conditions, in the first years of life, might have an impact on diseases and developmental disorders that occurred later in life and, subsequently, could influence health (Graham and Power 2004). However, living conditions might act, also, as reinforcement; shaping positive health behaviours and building up external and internal health-related resources such as self-efficacy. Researchers, adopting the life course approach, claimed that it ought not to be linked simply with longitudinal studies. The life course approach focused, also, on developing theoretical models; these would help to understand biological, psychosocial and behavioural health determinants in a dynamic setting. The critical development periods model and the cumulative risk exposure model were amongst the most frequently quoted (Graham 2002). The change model, used in this study, was the third most commonly applied model (Cohen et al. 2010; Walsemann et al. 2008), in which the change in family SES was measured usually by devising social mobility patterns or by creating a cumulated index including information from different stages of life (Luo and Waite 2005). Changes, in the family SES, might indicate a number of parental (...truncated)


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Joanna Mazur, Agnieszka Malkowska-Szkutnik, Izabela Tabak. Changes in family socio-economic status as predictors of self-efficacy in 13-year-old Polish adolescents, International Journal of Public Health, 2013, pp. 107-115, Volume 59, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s00038-013-0458-1