The figure shows (A) well-being and (B) self-esteem scores for each perceived income inequality amongst friends (PIIAF) group, including richer (red), equal (green), poorer (blue) or I don’t know (purple). Those who perceive themselves as poorer than their friends show lower average scores compared to other groups. Those who perceive themselves as the same as their friends show highest well-being scores.
Perceived income inequality amongst friends was related to changes in being victimised across adolescence.
We found that perceived income inequality was romania rcs data related to mental health difficulties in a similar way at age 11 and at age 14, and therefore perceiving oneself as poorer at age 11 did not mean that difficulties were even worse later in adolescence. In fact, we found that, on average, adolescents were victimised less at age 14 compared to when they were 11, and this change was greater for adolescents who perceived themselves as poorer than their friends at age 11. Specifically, adolescents who perceived themselves as poorer reported being victimised 17% more than those who perceived themselves as the same as their friends at age 11, and this difference decreased to 6% by age 14.
Adolescence is a period of social transition groups might both be changing. It is likely that attitudes, self-judgements and behaviour, such as perceived income inequality, will depend on the people and environments we compare ourselves to (e.g., peers, friends, neighbours, cultural norms, etc.), and to what extent economic social norms are important in our particular culture. Close relationships might have a stronger influence on behaviours than more distant relationships, which could mean that friends might hold a more meaningful role in influencing our behaviours and self-judgements than wider social groups.