Does whom you know in the status hierarchy prevent or trigger health limitation? Institutional embeddedness of social capital and social cost theories in three societies.

Abstract

Does whom you know in the status hierarchy prevent or trigger health limitation (life disruption due to health problems)? Does that effect vary by society? To addresses these two questions, this study applies five theories and analyzes nationally representative data from three societies (the United States, urban China, and Taiwan). Social capital theory expects accessed status (network members' status) to prevent health limitation, while social cost theory as proposed here asserts the opposite. The collectivistic advantage explanation anticipates social capital theory to apply more to urban China and Taiwan but social cost theory to apply more to the United States, while the collectivistic disadvantage explanation predicts the opposite. The inequality structure explanation expects social capital theory to apply more to Taiwan and social cost theory to apply more to the United States and urban China. This study measures accessed status on the occupational dimension. Results support social capital theory in Taiwan, social cost theory in the other two societies, and the inequality structure explanation across the three societies.