The relationship between perceived income inequality, adverse mental health and interpersonal difficulties in UK adolescents

Adolescence is a period of life when young people increasingly define themselves through peer comparison and are vulnerable to developing mental health problems. In the current study, we investigated whether the subjective experience of economic disadvantage is associated with social difficulties and poorer mental health in early adolescence. We used latent change score modelling (LCSM) on data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, collected at ages 11 and 14 (N=12995). Each LCSM estimated 5 parameters of 10 mental health and interpersonal difficulties-related variables: the mean of the outcome at age 11, and its variance; the change of the outcome from age 11 to age 14, and its variance; and a self-regressive parameter of the mean at age 11 on the change from age 11 to age 14. Perceived income inequality (e.g., perceiving oneself as belonging to a poorer family than the families of one’s peers) predicted adverse mental health and a range of interpersonal difficulties during adolescence, even when controlling for objective family income. Follow-up analyses highlighted that, at 11 years, young people who perceived themselves as belonging to poorer families than their friends reported worse well-being, self-esteem, internalising problems, externalising problems and victimisation at the same age (relative to those who perceived themselves as richer than or equal to their friends, or who did not know). Longitudinal analyses suggested that victimisation decreased from age 11 to 14 to a greater extent for adolescents who perceived themselves as poorer than other adolescents. Negative social comparisons in early adolescence could further amplify the negative effects of economic disadvantage on mental health and behavioural difficulties during this period.