Date of Award

1-1-2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Sociology

Content Description

1 online resource (x, 233 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Kate W. Strully

Committee Members

Scott South, Tse-Chuan Yang

Keywords

Adolescents, Income rank, Lifecourse perspective, Psychosocial stress, Relative deprivation, Social comparison, High school students, Education, Academic achievement

Subject Categories

Psychiatric and Mental Health | Social Psychology | Sociology

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation project is to investigate how adolescents’ comparative socioeconomic positions within their schools shape their short- and long-term outcomes, including later health, educational expectations and attainment, and the risk of having a nonmarital first birth. Although social comparison theory posits that individual well-being depends on the standings of others with whom one compares oneself, as well as on one’s own absolute standing, the empirical evidence of the theory has been mixed and controversial. This project argues that inconsistent findings may arise from difficulty in measuring reference groups, temporal ambiguity between exposures and outcomes, and methodological limitations.

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