A study of more than 1,300 Taiwanese adolescents living in poverty found that their relationships with family members, teachers, and peers may help explain the link between material deprivation and substance use. Family relationships also appeared to play a role in the link between material deprivation and psychological distress. The paper was published in Behavioral Sciences & the Law.
Adolescence is an important developmental period during which young people frequently experience psychological distress and some engage in problematic behaviors such as substance use. These problems can negatively affect their academic performance, relationships, health, and overall well-being, potentially leading to difficulties later in life.
One factor associated with these problems is material deprivation, a lack of essential resources such as food, clothing, electricity, medical care, or money for everyday needs. Adolescents experiencing material deprivation may face increased distress, and some may turn to substance use as a way of coping. However, previous studies have produced mixed findings, with some suggesting that material deprivation may actually limit substance use because adolescents cannot afford alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs.
Another important factor is the quality of adolescents’ relationships with family members, peers, and teachers, which may influence how they respond to material hardship. Poor social relationships may increase feelings of isolation, emotional difficulties, and the likelihood of engaging in substance use.
Study authors Zewei Liu and Ji-Kang Chen of the Chinese University of Hong Kong examined whether the quality of social relationships helps explain the links of material deprivation with psychological distress and substance use. They hypothesized that materially deprived adolescents would have lower-quality social relationships, which in turn would be associated with more substance use and greater psychological distress. Previous research on this question has largely focused on mental health outcomes in more advantaged groups of adolescents.
They analyzed data from the Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty, which contains information on a national sample of students from poor families in Taiwan. More than two-thirds of the participants came from households receiving government assistance for low- and lower-middle-income households, while the rest came from poor families recognized by the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, a nonprofit welfare organization that collected the data.
The analysis used survey data collected in 2013 and 2014 from 1,329 middle school and high school students who provided complete information. Their ages ranged from 10 to 17, with an average age of 15, and about half were girls. Most (78%) came from non-intact families.
The survey included 17 yes-or-no questions assessing material deprivation, such as whether adolescents “do not eat breakfast or lunch to save money” or “do not go out with friends because of not enough pocket money.” It also assessed the quality of relationships with family (using items adapted from the Family Adaptation and Cohesion Scale), peers (three items, e.g., “My classmates/peers and I share our good and bad moods”), and teachers (six items, e.g., “My teacher cares about me”).
The survey also assessed psychological distress, using items adapted from the Brief Symptom Rating Scale covering symptoms such as low mood, tension, and trouble sleeping during the past week, and substance use, asking whether adolescents had recently smoked cigarettes, drunk alcohol, or chewed betel nuts. Betel nuts are the seeds of the areca palm, chewed for their stimulant effects in parts of Asia and the Pacific, and their use is associated with an increased risk of oral cancer. Although selling betel nuts to minors is prohibited in Taiwan, they remain the third most popular substance in the country after alcohol and tobacco.
Adolescents who reported more material deprivation tended to report slightly worse relationships with peers, very slightly worse relationships with family and teachers, and somewhat higher psychological distress. However, material deprivation was not associated with substance use. Adolescents who reported more substance use tended to have slightly worse relationships with family and teachers, but not peers, and very slightly higher psychological distress.
The researchers then tested a statistical model in which material deprivation was linked to poorer social relationships, which were in turn linked to substance use and psychological distress. The results were consistent with family relationships serving as a pathway: adolescents facing more deprivation reported poorer family relationships, which were associated with greater distress. Relationships with peers and teachers did not appear to play this role for distress, while material deprivation remained directly linked to higher distress.
For substance use, the statistical model indicated that all three types of relationships played a role, but not in the same direction. Better family relationships were associated with less substance use, and teacher relationships showed a similar but weaker, borderline pattern. Better relationships with peers, in contrast, were associated with more substance use, which the authors suggest may reflect peer influence. All of these indirect associations were very weak.
The pathway through family relationships held among both girls and boys and among both middle school and high school students. The authors suggest that efforts to support adolescents in poverty could combine financial assistance with programs that strengthen family relationships.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of how material hardship relates to adolescent well-being. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted exclusively on adolescents from poor families, potentially limiting the variability of material deprivation scores, which could have weakened the associations between material deprivation and the other characteristics studied. Additionally, the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results.
All data were also collected using self-reports, and the authors note that some adolescents may have overstated their deprivation or underreported their substance use. Finally, the data were collected more than a decade ago, and circumstances for adolescents in poverty may have changed since then.
The paper, “Material Deprivation, Psychological Distress, and Substance Use Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Adolescents: The Mediating Roles of Social Relationships,” was authored by Zewei Liu and Ji-Kang Chen.