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Does social support mediate or moderate socioeconomic differences in self-rated health among adolescents?
Ferdinand Salonna1, Andrea Madarasova Geckova, Ivan Zezula
1Graduate School Kosice Institute for Society and Health, P.J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovakia. ferdinand.salonna@upjs.sk
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.
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