“Long Live Chairman Mao!!!! Your People Miss You!!!!”: Development of the Involvement System to Describe Social Positioning in Digitally Mediated Communication From China

HighlightsDifferent measures of social position capture unique dimensions of relative rank among youth.Youth-specific measures of social position may be important in identifying the most at-risk for obesity.Lower social status youth are more likely to be at-risk for obesity-related behaviors compared to those with a higher rank.This cross-sectional study examines multiple dimensions of social position in relation to obesity-related behaviors in an adolescent and young adult population. In addition to using conventional measures of social position, including parental education and household expenditures, we explore the usefulness of three youth-specific measures of social position – community and society subjective social status and school dropout status. Data are taken from a 2004 house-to-house survey of urban households within the bottom 20th percentile of income distribution within seven states in Mexico. A total of 5,321 Mexican adolescents, aged 12–22 years, provided information on obesity-related behaviors (e.g., diet, physical activity, sedentary behavior) and indicators of subjective and objective social position. A parent in each household provided information on socioeconomic status of the parent and household. Ordinal logistic regressions are used to estimate the associations of parental, household and adolescent indicators of social position and obesity-related risk behaviors. Those adolescents with the highest odds of adopting obesity risk behaviors were the ones who perceived themselves as lower in social status in reference to their peer community and those who had dropped out of school. We found no significant associations between parental education or household expenditures and obesity-related risk behaviors. Immediate social factors in adolescents’ lives may have a strong influence on their health-related behaviors. This study provides evidence for the usefulness of two particular measures, both of which are youth-specific. Adolescents and young adults who have dropped out of school and those with lower perceived relative social position within their community are more likely to be at-risk for obesity-related behaviors than those with higher relative social position. We conclude that youth-specific measures may be important in identifying the most at-risk among relatively homogeneous populations of youth.

Introduction Perceptions of social standing have increasingly well-documented relationships with health. Higher subjective social status (SSS) is associated with better psychological well-being among women, and mothers of newborns. The relationship between SSS and psychological distress among mothers of young children, however, is largely unknown. SSS may provide insight into aspects of maternal functioning that are relevant to parenting capacity, as well as insight into future health; in addition, SSS is brief, and may be perceived as less intrusive than other measures of socioeconomic status or mental health. We evaluated the relationship between SSS and psychological distress among mothers of 5-year-old children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Methods One hundred and sixty-two mothers of 5-year old children, who participated in a study of child self-regulation, completed surveys that assessed sociodemographics, mental health, and perceived social support. The MacArthur Scale of SSS used pictures of ten-rung ladders to assess respondents' social position in relation to the US (SES ladder) and their community (community ladder). Quantile regression models were used to assess the relationship between maternal psychological distress (perceived social support, depressive symptoms, anxiety) and the ladders (individually and together), adjusting for maternal age, race, education, and number of children. To examine whether the SSS-health relationships differed by race, the models were also stratified by race. Results Community ladder ranking was positively associated with social support (β=1.34, SE=0.33, p<.001), and negatively associated with depressive symptoms (β=-1.34, SE=0.52, p<.05). SES ladder ranking was positively associated with social support (β=1.17, SE=0.52, p<.05). Findings in the full sample were driven by more robust relationships between psychological distress and community SSS among Black/African-American mothers. Discussion The findings suggest that perceived social standing in one's community is associated with maternal psychological well-being. Community SSS may be particularly influential for Black/African-American mothers' well-being.

Despite a well-established association between relative social position and health, stratification at smaller levels of social organization has received scant attention. Neighborhood is a localized context that has increasing relevance for adults as they age, thus one's relative position within this type of mesolevel group may have an effect on mental health, independent of absolute level of social and economic resources. We examine the relationship between an older adult's relative rank within their neighborhoods on two criteria and depressive symptoms. Using data from the Chicago Health and Aging Project, neighborhood relative social position was ascertained for two social domains: income and social reputation (number of neighbors one knows well enough to visit). Using multilevel models, we estimated the effect of relative position within the neighborhood on depressive symptoms, net of absolute level for each domain and average neighborhood level. Higher neighborhood relative rankings on both income and visiting neighbors were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Although both were modest in effect, the gradient in depressive symptoms was three times steeper for the relative rank of visiting neighbors than for income. Men had steeper gradients than women in both domains, but no race differences were observed. These findings suggest that an older adult's relative position in a local social hierarchy is associated with his/her mental health, net of absolute position.

Beefing up with the Chans: Evidence for the effects of relative income and income inequality on health from the China Health and Nutrition Survey

We explored the relationship between income and two oral health outcomes in Brazil, in order to assess the shape of this relationship. Individual-level data from a national oral health survey were obtained for 22 634 15- to 19-year-old subjects from 330 municipalities. Relationships between income (equivalized household income) and oral health were smoothed using the locally weighted ordinary least squares regression (LOWESS) technique in order to assess the relationship between material circumstances and oral health. We also ranked individuals based on equivalized household income, supplemented by information from total household income, interviewees' earnings, number of cars in the household and years of education, in order to assess the relationship between social position and oral health. The relationship between oral health and equivalized household income showed a threshold and, assuming causality, income levels higher than R$850 per month did not improve oral health further. The relationship between oral health and social position was linear. Correlations of oral health with the ranking variable (social position) were stronger than with equivalized household income, regardless of the income level, and did not decrease after controlling for income. The relation of oral health in teenagers with equivalized household income (material circumstances) showed a threshold, but the relation with a ranking variable (social position) was linear. Maybe differences in oral health between individuals are influenced by both their material circumstances (up to a certain level of income) and their social position in relation to others, i.e. social status (at any income level).

Class is essentially a person’s social position in relation to others within a cultural context. This article examines two representational approaches used in a study of parents’ perceptions of parental involvement to discuss the critical role representation plays in the production and reproduction of current discourses on class. Although these approaches both use the parents’ stories to engage the reader, one combines these into group-oriented “cultural stories” whereas the other focuses on individual-based “contextual stories.” The role these two forms of narrative might play in redressing the oppressive practices that contribute to maintaining class positions within social and cultural contexts is examined. The author concludes that localized scrutiny of social practices represented through the contextual stories enables a deeper understanding of how social class identities and positions are the result of different actions and interactions shaped within a shared social practice of involvement.

OFTEN ENOUGH members of one social class have been viewed as struggling with members of other classes, as excluding others from membership in their own class, or as aspiring to become members of higher social classes. Whatever the precise formulation of the situation, the general tone of descriptions of interclass relationships has often been one of competition, antagonism, exclusion, tension, or conflict. Yet ordinary experience suggests that most individuals direct some positive affect toward social classes other than their own in any functioning and enduring system of social stratification. This paper is concerned with a measure of part of this affect (here termed affinity),' and it offers a description of some of the antecedent conditions contributing to different affect distributions. No member of a complex, stratified society carries a cognitive map of the full social system in his head, but surely he always has some general understanding of his own social position in relation to the positions of others. At the very least he will be aware of categories of statuses which are roughly higher, lower, or equal to his own. Again, at a realistic level, his conscious preference for his own or some other may be perfectly clear to him and to others. Yet at the same time his affective attitudes toward positions within the array of positions known to him may not be so clear. A consideration of these often more ambiguous affective attitudes is our concern here. The attraction felt by people for various social positions can be termed status affinity. If a person is primarily and strongly attracted to a specific or set of statuses, his affinity may be said to be focused, but if his primary attraction to a specific position is relatively weak and if he allocates positive affect to other positions as well, his affinity may be described as distributed.2

An empirical analysis of White privilege, social position and health

This chapter introduces the concept of relative deprivation and social comparison theory in order to discuss the perceived or subjective experience of poverty and its consequences. First, the link between, on the one hand, monetary poverty and inequality, and on the other, the subjective experience of relative deprivation and social position is analysed. Then it is analysed how the subjective experience of relative deprivation influences both happiness and political participation in society. Through empirical analysis, the chapter shows how the societal context – especially economic inequality, welfare arrangements and quality of governance – has an impact, both on people’s subjective perception of their own position in society and on their perceptions of deprivation. It is argued that the reference group for comparison is no longer restricted to the inhabitants of the nation because people compare their living standard with the living standard in other nations and their own past and future living standard. The analysis is based on data from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2010, 2012 and 2016 and the International Survey Program 2015 and 2009.

Social Inequalities and Health

We tested two competing hypotheses-relative social position and community resources-in regards to their effect on two co-occurring health problems (depression, and obesity) in a sample of smokers participating in an online smoking cessation intervention. Income and education data at the zip code level from the 2000 Census was linked with individual level data. Logistic regression models were used for each co-occurring problem to determine how each SES variable (individually and interactively) was associated with the presence of co-occurring health problems. We found that lower individual education was related to poorer health for all outcomes (Depression: OR = 1.25; Obesity: OR = 1.24; Both: OR = 1.46), lower community education was only related to obesity (OR = 1.20). Lower individual income was related to higher rates of depressive symptoms (OR = 1.64) and both health problems (OR = 1.55); a significant interaction of individual and community income (Wald = 6.13, p < .05) revealed that high income individuals were less likely to be depressed if they lived in lower-income communities and became more likely to be so as community income increased. Relative social position was confirmed for depression, whereas community resources were prominent only for obesity. Higher individual education most consistently predicted positive health outcomes, making it a potentially powerful target to reduce health disparities.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;This study examines the histories of Anglican girls’ secondary schools from 1877-1975, placing them within a social class setting. This thesis argues that these schools, despite the diversity of their location and the dates of their founding, existed largely to educate the daughters of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ruling class. The ruling class can be defined as an active class made up of social elites, who were influential in society and possessed economic, social and cultural capital. This capital appears in the form of the ability to set an agenda in civic society, as membership in networks, and as the possession of a formal education. The Anglican girls’ private schools were a means through which this class replicated itself. The Anglican church possessed many such influential members of society and was driven, on a diocesan level, to establish private schools for girls in defence of a curriculum which included religious education.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The schools in this study were all founded between 1878 and 1918 and remain in existence today. Over their lifetimes they have remained exclusively girls’ schools, with a mix of day-students and boarders. The thesis uses data collected from school archives, libraries, and school histories as well as a wider literature on education and class theory in order to situate the schools firmly within a class analysis. The thesis makes particular use of admissions registers to analyse the demographic of students attending the schools, situating students within their geographical catchments. Further, admissions registers have been used to determine the social status of parental occupation of students and their relative social class position. Each of the schools engaged in discourses surrounding the purpose of an education for girls. Schools strived to offer students both an academic and a social education. These two goals often existed in tension. The schools grappled with the aim of educating their students to be young Anglican women of good character who were able to fulfil their roles as future wives and mothers in affluent households, whilst also offering an academic curriculum which promised rigour for those most able. As the role of women in the workplace and wider society evolved, so too did the pedagogy of the schools both in terms of curriculum and in the conveyance of symbolic capital through membership in elite ruling class networks. Throughout the time period under examination, 1877-1975, the schools consistently offered an alternative to state schools, an alternative that described the ‘difference’ that private schooling could offer. That ‘difference’, this thesis suggests, was one that signified superiority, locating the schools within the upper ranks of social class hierarchy in Aotearoa New Zealand.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;This study examines the histories of Anglican girls’ secondary schools from 1877-1975, placing them within a social class setting. This thesis argues that these schools, despite the diversity of their location and the dates of their founding, existed largely to educate the daughters of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ruling class. The ruling class can be defined as an active class made up of social elites, who were influential in society and possessed economic, social and cultural capital. This capital appears in the form of the ability to set an agenda in civic society, as membership in networks, and as the possession of a formal education. The Anglican girls’ private schools were a means through which this class replicated itself. The Anglican church possessed many such influential members of society and was driven, on a diocesan level, to establish private schools for girls in defence of a curriculum which included religious education.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The schools in this study were all founded between 1878 and 1918 and remain in existence today. Over their lifetimes they have remained exclusively girls’ schools, with a mix of day-students and boarders. The thesis uses data collected from school archives, libraries, and school histories as well as a wider literature on education and class theory in order to situate the schools firmly within a class analysis. The thesis makes particular use of admissions registers to analyse the demographic of students attending the schools, situating students within their geographical catchments. Further, admissions registers have been used to determine the social status of parental occupation of students and their relative social class position. Each of the schools engaged in discourses surrounding the purpose of an education for girls. Schools strived to offer students both an academic and a social education. These two goals often existed in tension. The schools grappled with the aim of educating their students to be young Anglican women of good character who were able to fulfil their roles as future wives and mothers in affluent households, whilst also offering an academic curriculum which promised rigour for those most able. As the role of women in the workplace and wider society evolved, so too did the pedagogy of the schools both in terms of curriculum and in the conveyance of symbolic capital through membership in elite ruling class networks. Throughout the time period under examination, 1877-1975, the schools consistently offered an alternative to state schools, an alternative that described the ‘difference’ that private schooling could offer. That ‘difference’, this thesis suggests, was one that signified superiority, locating the schools within the upper ranks of social class hierarchy in Aotearoa New Zealand.&lt;/p&gt;

Chronic stress can have a deleterious effect on the re-productive axis that, for females, is manifested in an increased incidence of infertility. However, gonadal steroids may, in turn, affect a female's response to stress as measured by activity within the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis. What is not clear is whether a history of exposure to stress modifies the effect of gonadal steroids on LHPA responsivity. Rhesus monkeys present a unique opportunity to assess LHPA responsivity when housed socially in groups. Under these situations, monkeys exhibit a rich network of affiliation and have established social status hierarchies. Previous work indicates that socially subordinate macaque females are hypercortisolemic due to diminished gluco-corticoid negative feedback. The present study tested the hypothesis that estradiol (E2) would decrease gluco-corticoid negative feedback, assessed from a dexamethasone (DEX) suppression test, and increase the response to corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) and that these effects would be attenuated by co-treatment with P4. In addition, we also determined whether E2 and P4 would differentially affect LHPA responsiveness to pharmacological challenge in socially dominant compared with subordinate females. Endogenous gonadal hormone secretion in female rhesus monkeys (n = 7) was suppressed by continuous treatment with a sustained release formulation of the GnRH analog leuprolide acetate (Lupron Depot). The response to a combined DEX suppression-CRF stimulation test was assessed using a counterbalanced design during a placebo (control) treatment condition and during E2, P4, and E2 + P4 re-placement therapy. Females who were members of a large breeding group of 140 adults and juveniles of both sexes, were classified as dominant (n = 4) or subordinate (n = 3) based on the relative social dominance positions within the group. Plasma levels of cortisol were significantly higher during E2 replacement compared to the other treatment conditions following DEX suppression and stimulation with CRF.

Several hypotheses about the relationships among individual tree growth, tree leaf area, and relative tree size or position were tested with red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) growing in uneven-aged, mixed-species forests of south-central Maine, U.S.A. Based on data from 65 sample trees, predictive models were developed to (i)estimate the amount of foliage held by individual trees from sapwood cross-sectional area and (ii)define the relationship between stem volume growth and three variables: total foliage area, relative position in the stand, and the degree of past suppression. A model that included variables representing tree size (or relative social position) and degree of past suppression (live branch whorls per unit crown length) indicated that stem volume growth first increased but later decreased over leaf area when other variables were held constant. Growth efficiency declined with increasing tree leaf area, although greater height and diameter enhanced growth efficiency and greater past suppression diminished growth efficiency. The decline in growth efficiency with greater leaf area likely is attributable to one or several of the factors previously identified as contributing to growth declines in mature, even-aged stands.