Loosening the Link Between Childhood Poverty and Adolescent Smoking and Obesity: The Protective Effects of Social Capital

Pervasive, lifelong inequalities in physical health begin in early childhood and are driven, in part, by social gradients in risk factors such as smoking and obesity. Yet not all low-income children have elevated physical-health risks as adults. The relation between ¡ncome-to-needs ratio at age 9 an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2011-01, Vol.22 (1), p.3-7
Main Authors: Evans, Gary W., Kutcher, Rachel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adolescence
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior - psychology
Adolescents
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Body fat
Body Mass Index
Child
Child development
Child poverty
Childhood
Childhood obesity
Childrens health
Communities
Community relations
Comorbidity
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Health disparities
Health risks
Health status
Humans
Low income groups
Male
Medical sciences
New York - epidemiology
Obesity
Obesity - epidemiology
Obesity - psychology
Poverty
Poverty - psychology
Poverty - statistics & numerical data
Prevalence
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Research Reports
Risk factors
Rural communities
Rural Population - statistics & numerical data
Smoking
Smoking - epidemiology
Smoking - psychology
Social capital
Social Support
Socioeconomic status
Teenagers
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco, tobacco smoking
Toxicology
U.S.A
Youth
Youth culture
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Summary:Pervasive, lifelong inequalities in physical health begin in early childhood and are driven, in part, by social gradients in risk factors such as smoking and obesity. Yet not all low-income children have elevated physical-health risks as adults. The relation between ¡ncome-to-needs ratio at age 9 and smoking prevalence and body fat (body mass index) at age 17 was examined in a sample of 196 rural adolescents. Income-to-needs ratio is the U.S. federal government's defined index of household income as a proportion of the poverty line. This is the first study to show that links between childhood poverty and subsequent physical health outcomes can be loosened. At-risk youth in communities with a relatively rich array of social capital did not smoke more or have greater excess body fat compared with their more affluent counterparts.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797610390387