Tulane University, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, Richardson Building 305, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA.
Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 25, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Econ Hum Biol. 2020 May;37:100858. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100858. Epub 2020 Jan 30.
We investigate whether relative age (i.e. the age gap between classmates) affects life satisfaction and health in adolescence. We analyse data on students between 10 and 17 years of age from the international survey 'Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children' and find robust evidence that a twelve-month increase in relative age (i.e. the hypothetical maximum age gap between classmates) i) increases life satisfaction by 0.168 standard deviations, ii) increases self-rated general health by 0.108 standard deviations, iii) decreases psychosomatic complaints by 0.072 standard deviations, and iv) decreases chances of being overweight by 2.4 %. These effects are comparable in size to the effects of students' household socio-economic status. Finally, gaps in life satisfaction are the only ones to reduce with the increase in absolute age, but only in countries where the first tracking of students occurs at 14 years of age or later.
我们研究了相对年龄（即同学之间的年龄差距）是否会影响青少年的生活满意度和健康。我们分析了来自国际调查“青少年健康行为”的 10 至 17 岁学生的数据，有确凿的证据表明，相对年龄增加 12 个月（即同学之间假设的最大年龄差距）会：i）使生活满意度提高 0.168 个标准差，ii）使自评总体健康状况提高 0.108 个标准差，iii）使身心症状减少 0.072 个标准差，以及 iv）超重的几率降低 2.4%。这些影响的大小与学生家庭社会经济地位的影响相当。最后，只有生活满意度的差距随着绝对年龄的增加而缩小，但这仅发生在首次对学生进行跟踪调查的年龄为 14 岁或以上的国家。
