Sociodemographic factors and trajectories of mental health
mental distress
The findings of the current study indicated that a subjective evaluation of the youth’s SES was significantly associated with the optimal trajectory of mental health, in comparison with the intermediate and sub-optimal trajectories. Consequently, youth reporting higher levels of SES were more likely to report higher levels of mental health over time. Earlier studies using variable-centered analytical procedures have indicated a negative association between low SES and poor mental health (Other sociodemographic factors, such as age and gender were examined in the analysis, and while age had no significant associations with mental health, significant correlations of gender were found with mental distress, and mental well-being, where females were more likely to report higher scores on mental distress, but lower scores on mental well-being. These are findings that have also been recounted in earlier studies (