This article reports the findings of a study determining the health of students in the gymnasium classes of primary school in Saratov as a function of the increase in their educational load. A monitoring was carried out from the 1993-1994 school year through the 1999-2000 school year. The social health of this group of children was determined as a result of repeated observations, anthropometric, somatoscopic, and psychometric observations, the study of medical documentation, and questionnaire surveys. On the whole, the study showed the following: (1) A tendency for the social health of younger students to deteriorate is indicated by the dynamics of all of the indicators; (2) From 1996 through 1999-2000 the standard of living in the group in question fell by almost two times, and stood at 53.6 percent of the subsistence minimum; (3) The deterioration of the social health of younger students in Saratov who belong to the lower strata is leading to a decline in the social adaptation of this group of children and their ability to be socialized; (4) Under these conditions the most informative indicators of the social health among younger children were these: maturity (the Philippine test); the state of their intelligence (the Kern-Jirasek test);and the indicator of their social adaptation; (5) When the standard of living falls below the subsistence minimum, the social health of boys aged seven and eight deteriorates more rapidly than that of girls of the same age; and (6) Social health, and its indicators on any level, reflect the state of particular structures of society. (Contains 2 tables.)