What's the best way to measure socioeconomic status in kids?

Veeky Forums,
I'm writing my master's thesis and I need to figure out a good measure of socioeconomic status for 15-17 year old high school students in America. I don't want to just ask about parent's income because they likely don't know and they obviously don't have enough education for that to be a factor. I'm thinking about a sliding scale of something like "the wealth of my family is higher/same/lower when compared to those around me." it's a subjective self-report so it's not that valid, but I can't think of anything better. Any advice, suggestions, or experience with these types of questions?

>tl;dr
>user needs help asking how rich kids' parents are in a survey

bumb

will be monitoring this for the next 6 or 7 hours

Ask if their parents rent or own their homes, find out how large the house is, and how many cars they own. That will narrow it down a bit

Makes sense to ask about their parents. Know of another other proxy questions that get to the root of the question? I guess 'what is your parents education' is the most standard one

Just ask what their parents jobs are

this

also ask what model cell phone they own, and if their parents are renting a television

ask for the cars, number of owned real estates, number of vacations per year, size of main home, status of higher class like visits of operas or home personnel, play golf etc., whether the parents have a leading position/are landlords

>my father is a programmer!
So is he a minimum wage pajeet or a google star engineer?

It's not perfect but it's a clearer proxy than asking how educated your parents were.

Also the jobs you're pointing out with the largest range of incomes are generally either middle or upper class.

E.g. A lowly accountant and a big shot accountant are both at least middle class. You aren't going to mistake them for lower class or working class.

You can also take into account that the parents will be in their 40s to discount a for instance them being an entry-level code monkey

Just start with a conclusion and work backwards from there :^)

not a good question, too variable
this. Dad is an engineer, does he design artistic bridges or pour concrete foundations?

although good counter point

I would also have to individually code and classify each job description. I'd rather give a set response and just put a number into SPSS

desu that sounds exactly like what OP is doing


OP, satisfy our curiosity, why do you want to know how much their parents make?

>socioeconomic status
This is a science and maths board OP

>I'm writing my master's thesis and I need to figure out a good measure of socioeconomic status for 15-17 year old high school students in America.

This is why your field is a joke. You're going to end up using an imprecise metric and your results will be nothing more than heresay.

Clothing, smartphone, size of their house/apartment.

didn't think /pol/ or /soc/ was reliable

Should have called it & humanities and posted it on Veeky Forums

then provide a precise metric and I'll use it
>assumed my field
>assumed my thesis is a single, basic demographic question

for comparison purposes, just a typical demographic question. but it's less straightforward when dealing with kids

ask number of friends, what sport and other extracurricular activities they do, and how much allowance they get.

>your field is a joke that measures things you can possibly only measure by imprecise metrics
>hurr give me a precise metric

liberal arts go away

why do you add the word socio before econimic here??

>kids

You mean human children or young goats?

Because it is not just the economic condition but the social class as well

CHECC THAT DIGG

Just argue that all 15-17 year olds fall into the category of 'persecuted minority' because they're universally disenfranchised from voting without due process.

Socioeconomic status is a meme, why are you studying memes?

Sneakers and headphones

Polling consumption habits will give a lot of false positives. Many people with a flashy lifestyle have a lot of debt. If consumption is not status.
Good questions to ask would be;
How stressed are your parents over bills?
Do your parents have to work 2 jobs or a lot of overtime to make ends meet?
Do you feel like you will afford to get an education?
What is your prime motive for working?
Do you have a savings account?
Does your family subscribe to any newspapers?