The sequential mediating effects of dietary behavior and perceived stress on the relationship between subjective socioeconomic status and multicultural adolescent health

Studies have examined the impact of social determinants of health on the health behaviors and health statuses of ethnic minority adolescents. This study examines the subjective health of this population by examining the direct effects of multicultural adolescents’ subjective socioeconomic status (SES) and the sequential mediating effects of their dietary behaviors and perceived stress. We utilized secondary data of 500 middle school students from multicultural families who participated in the 15th Korean Youth Health Behavior Survey, 2019. Information about SES, perceived stress, subjective health status, and dietary behavior (measured by the breakfast intake frequency during the prior week) were utilized. For the relationship between the SES and the subjective health status, we confirmed the sequential mediating effects of breakfast frequency and perceived stress using SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS macro with bootstrapping. The results showed that SES had a direct effect on subjective health status and indirectly influenced subjective health status through the sequential mediating effect of breakfast frequency and perceived stress. However, SES had no direct effects on perceived stress. These findings emphasize that broadening the community-health lens to consider the upstream factor of SES when preparing health promotion interventions is essential to achieving health equity for vulnerable populations.