Examining Reliability and Validity of a Subjective Adolescent SES Measure

Introduction: Socioeconomic status (SES) is a robust predictor of health outcomes in adolescence and later adulthood, yet obtaining accurate and reliable measurement of SES remains a significant challenge. This is in part due to adolescents' lack of knowledge about their parents SES. We use a subjective SES measure that assesses adolescent perceptions of economic resources (PER) of their family (i.e., “how much money does your family have?” - not enough to get by, just enough to get by etc.) and evaluate its reliability over time in relation to other commonly used measures of parental/family SES, as well as its predictive validity in relation to alcohol use – a common risk behavior during adolescence and young adulthood.

Methods: Longitudinal data from 593 parent-child dyads assessed in middle school (6^th-7^th grade) and in young adulthood (19-23 years) were analyzed using factor analysis and regression models. Adolescent reports of parental education and PER, and parental reports of their education and family income were obtained in middle-school (baseline). Self-reports of alcohol use were obtained at baseline (Mage = 15.1 years) and young adulthood (Mage = 21.5 years).

Results: Adolescent PER was significantly correlated with adolescent reports of parental education (r’s = 0.26 – 0.32) and loaded on a single factor with these SES indicators (loadings = 0.36 – 0.44). Adolescent reports of parental education and parents’ own reports of education were more strongly correlated (r = 0.58 – 0.66) than associations between adolescent PER and parental reports of family income (r = 0.41). Controlling for demographics, alcohol use in middle school was significantly predicted by adolescent reports of parental education, B(SE) = -0.25(0.12), p <0.05, but not by adolescent PER, B(SE) = 0.21(0.19), p = 0.26. Young adult drinking was independently predicted by both parental education, B(SE) = 0.64(0.24), p <0.01 and PER, B(SE) = 1.25(0.46), p <0.01.

Conclusion: Adolescent PER can be a useful indicator of family SES, in addition to parental education. PER demonstrated convergent validity with other common SES indicators across time and predictive validity in relation to a common health risk behavior of alcohol use during young adulthood. Although PER was not predictive of drinking behaviors during adolescence, this may be because early-onset drinking (in 6^th-7^th grade) was less prevalent in our sample (<5%). Future research should evaluate predictive validity of adolescent PER using larger sample sizes and latent factors with multiple subjective SES indicators.