Читать книгу Introduction to Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology - Robert Weis - Страница 51

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a variable that reflects three aspects of a child’s environment: (1) parents’ levels of education, (2) parents’ employment, and (3) family income. As you might expect, these three variables are correlated; parents with greater educational attainment tend to work more complex, higher-paying jobs. Overall, children from lower-SES families are at greater risk for developing mental disorders than children from middle- or high-SES families (Kessler et al., 2012a).

There are at least two explanations for the association between SES and risk for psychological disorders. First, higher-SES parents may be less likely to experience psychological problems themselves. They pass on genes conducive to better mental health to their children. Second, higher-SES parents may be better able to provide environments for their children that protect them from psychological problems. For example, parents with higher incomes may be better able to afford higher-quality health care, nutrition, or schooling for their children. These early experiences, in turn, can protect their children from the emergence of mental health problems.

Of course, genetic and environmental factors often interact to place children at risk for disorders. For example, in one large study, researchers examined the prevalence of ADHD in children from low- and high-income families (Rowland et al., 2019). Children from low-income families were 6 times more likely than children from high-income families to have ADHD if neither parent had the disorder. However, if a parent also had ADHD, low-income children were 10 times more likely than high-income children to have the disorder. These findings suggest that both genetic risk and environmental quality affect prevalence.

A related predictor of children’s mental health is family composition. Recent research indicates that youths living with only one biological parent are twice as likely to develop an anxiety or mood disorder as youths living with both biological parents. Furthermore, adolescents living in single-parent homes may be 6 times more likely to develop a behavior or substance use disorder as youths living in a two-parent household (Kessler et al., 2012a). The association between single-parent families and increased mental health problems is partially explained by SES; single parents often earn lower family incomes than two-parent families. However, single parents also report greater stress and may have more difficulty monitoring their children’s behavior than two-parent families. These factors, in turn, can contribute to their children’s behavior problems (Frick, 2013).