The effect of socioeconomic status on perceived school pressure. With a secondary focus on the role of parental support in this relation.

Abstract

The last decade adolescents perceive a greater amount of school pressure. Experiencing school pressure can lower achievements and affect the mental health of adolescents. Few studies have been done regarding socio-economic status (SES) as a factor associated with perceived school pressure. Most are non-Western studies. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between SES and perceived school pressure, with a secondary focus on the role of parental support. The dataset of the cross-sectional study of HBSC 2021 was used. Which took a sample of 7258 Dutch adolescents in schools (M = 13.9, SD = 1.9). Contrary to predictions, SES has no direct association with perceived school pressure when controlled for age and gender. Perceived school pressure was lower in adolescents who receive more parental support, regardless of age or gender. Being older and a girl showed a higher amount of perceived school pressure. The study concludes that to understand perceived school pressure, important factors as parental support must be considered as well as age and gender, while SES is not an important factor. Future research should investigate what sort of parental support is most influential (e.g., emotional or material) and what differentiates amount of pressure based on age and gender.