INDICATORS OF SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS FOR ADOLESCENTS - THE WHO HEALTH BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN SURVEY

Many indicators of socioeconomic status used for adults are inappropri ate for use in research on adolescents, In a school-based survey of 40 79 Scottish schoolchildren using a self-completion questionnaire, over 20% of 11-15 year olds were unable to provide a substantive response on father's occupation. In contrast, indicators derived to construct a family affluence scale, which included car ownership, telephone owner ship and the child having their own unshared bedroom, resulted in a 98 % response rate; and 92% of children responded to a question on their weekly spending money, The intercorrelations between the conventional indicator of father's occupation and each family affluence and spendin g money were examined, and their associations with a range of health i ndicators and health behaviour measures compared, Father's occupationa l status and family affluence were moderately correlated and showed br oadly similar patterns of association with the selected health measure s although there were also some distinct differences. Child's spending money was only weakly correlated with father's occupation and showed rather different patterns of association with health measures, A case is made for the use of multiple indicators of socioeconomic status in adolescent health surveys, and it is argued that that the family afflu ence scale provides a useful and easily applied additional indicator t o father's occupation or an alternative measure of socioeconomic backg round where occupational data are unavailable.