Study: Social Status as a Teen Predicts Health as an Adult
There is currently a consolation among middle-aged people who flinch at the mere thought of their adolescent days. A new Swedish study revealed that the social standing of an individual as a teenager may be a good indicator of his/her future health status.
Likewise, in a related research, British scientists discovered that mothers who venture into a work outside the home are more likely to have children who would later engage in lifestyles that are detrimental to their overall well-being — including poor eating habits and engaging in less exercise — than children whose mothers stay at home.
These two studies appeared online on September 29 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Ylva Almquist, the author of the study and sociologist at the Center for Health Equity Studies in Stockholm, said that the results of their study underlines the significance of acknowledging the fact that school is definitely not only about scholastic performance, but is equally so when it comes to the social interaction among children.
The proponents of the study analyzed the data from 14,000 children who took part in the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study, which monitored the long-term health status of Swedes born between 1953 and 2003. Almquist and her team particularly examined specific variables which include levels of popularity, power and status as perceived by the subjects in the study who were in sixth grade in 1966.
The information obtained by the researchers served as a personality baseline.
