Abstract

BORGES, António; MATOS, Margarida Gaspar de  and  DINIZ, José Alves. Family status and self-perception of health in adolescents. Temas psicol. [online]. 2011, vol.19, n.2, pp. 347-360. ISSN 1413-389X.

What's the importance of family status on health perception of Portuguese adolescents, particularly in regard to socioeconomic and sociocultural aspects and to parents' work? Data from the Portuguese sample of the study Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (2006), which consisted of 4,877 adolescents with an average age of 14 years, 49.6% males and 50.4% female, were used. After statistical analysis, we compared averages between groups and a linear regression was made. Adolescents with higher family status perceive themselves in better health both in the affective and the cognitive components. Despite differences between genders, the socioeconomic factor shows the greatest overall impact, even though the parents' educational level has similar impact in the cognitive component of health. As age increases the influence of family status tends to fade. It just takes one of the parents to be unemployed to get adolescents with lowest rates of health perception. This study can help devise more appropriate educational and health promoting strategies based on family status, age and gender of adolescents.

Keywords : Adolescence; Health; Socioeconomic Status; Sociocultural Status; Unemployment.

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