Subjective Social Economic Status of Adolescence in Macau

ABSTRACT Social economic status is an important construct in social science; however, little research has been done for subjective measures than its objective counterparts. Adler, Epel, Castellazzo and Ickovics (2000) have proposed a single item ten-point Likert scale for a subjective social economic status, mainly used in health research. This study applies the subjective measure to a sample of 8,585 students, 7,285 parents and 1,416 teachers. Individual scale norms have been generated for each cohort. Previous research has established the reliabilities and validities of this measure; however, this research goes further by showing the correlations between the measure and perceived academic performance of students, perceived economic situation of the society and difficulties in finding jobs, which in turn confirm the validity of the scale.