Effect Of Social Position Research Articles

Effects of social position and household affordances on COVID-19 lockdown resilience and coping

In France, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown measures have created unprecedented circumstances that increase stress and anxiety, thus leading individuals experiencing home confinement to adopt various coping strategies that contribute to building resilience. Given the novelty and recency of the COVID-19 lockdown, factors of coping and resilience in this specific context of home confinement remain undefined. Based on some recent observations, we conducted a study on a convenience sample in France (N = 809) in order to investigate two potential factors of lockdown resilience and coping: social position and household affordances, while also exploring some complementary hypotheses based on the literature. Social position and household affordances were identified as significant predictors of lockdown coping and resilience, and low social position was found to coincide with less social support coping strategies. Results are discussed in relation to the theory and the limits identified in this study. Recommendations are made for potential second waves of COVID-19 spread or similar pandemics in the future.

Early-life relationships matter: Social position during early life predicts fitness among female spotted hyenas.

How social development in early-life affects fitness remains poorly understood. Though there is growing evidence that early-life relationships can affect fitness, little research has investigated how social positions develop or whether there are particularly important periods for social position development in an animal's life history. In long-lived species in particular, understanding the lasting consequences of early-life social environments requires detailed, long-term datasets. Here we used a 25-year dataset to test whether social positions held during early development predicted adult fitness. Specifically, we quantified social position using three social network metrics: degree, strength and betweenness. We determined the social position of each individual in three types of networks during each of three stages of ontogeny to test whether they predict annual reproductive success (ARS) or longevity among adult female spotted hyenas Crocuta crocuta. The social positions occupied by juvenile hyenas did predict their fitness, but the effects of social position on fitness measures differed between stages of early development. Network metrics when individuals were young adults better predicted ARS, but network metrics for younger animals, particularly when youngsters were confined to the communal den, better predicted longevity than did metrics assessed during other stages of development. Our study shows how multiple types of social bonds formed during multiple stages of social development predict lifetime fitness outcomes. We suggest that social bonds formed during specific phases of development may be more important than others when considering fitness outcomes.

Effects of social position and competition on tree transpiration of a natural mixed forest in Chongqing, China

Key message This study explored the influence of social position and competition on tree transpiration using spatial structure parameters and competition indices.

Differential vulnerability and susceptibility: how to make use of recent development in our understanding of mediation and interaction to tackle health inequalities.

This paper discusses the concepts of vulnerability and susceptibility and their relevance for understanding and tackling health inequalities. Tackling socioeconomic inequalities in health is based on an understanding of how an individual's social position influences disease risk. Conceptually, there are two possible mechanisms (not mutually exclusive): there is either some cause(s) of disease that are unevenly distributed across socioeconomic groups (differential exposure) or the effect of some cause(s) of disease differs across groups (differential effect). Since differential vulnerability and susceptibility are often used to denote the latter, we discuss these concepts and their current use and suggest an epidemiologically relevant distinction. The effect of social position can thus be mediated by causes that are unevenly distributed across social groups and/or interact with social position. Recent improvements in the methodology to estimate mediation and interaction have made it possible to calculate measures of relevance for setting targets and priorities in policy for health equity which include both mechanisms, i.e. equalize exposure or equalize effects. We finally discuss the importance of differential susceptibility and vulnerability for the choice of preventive strategies, including approaches that target high-risk individuals, whole populations and vulnerable groups.

Where You Stand Affects the Risks You Take: Socially Reference-Dependent Risk Attitudes

How does an individual’s position within a social distribution influence their desire to take risk? Reference-dependent loss aversion (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979; Koszegi and Rabin, 2006, 2007) adapted to a social setting, suggests that individuals may find risk more appealing when they are doing especially well or poorly compared to their peers. We examine the effects of social position on risk attitudes in a simple experiment which allows subjects to take risks at different locations in the social distribution against a realistic backdrop of real effort tasks. Subjects’ reference point under the loss aversion assumption is inferred from their empirical risk-taking patterns. Among subjects assigned to low expected earnings, we find a convex relationship in risk-taking across the social distribution when social information is available, consistent with a reference-point near the social median. For subjects assigned to high expected earnings, risk taking tends to be concave in social position, consistent with having a reference-point near the top of the social distribution. We find supporting evidence for our experimental findings using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY 97), in which similar patterns of risk tendencies across the income distribution are reported among individuals with lower and higher expected lifetime earnings, respectively. In finding different influential reference points among individuals with different expected earnings, our findings suggest that expectations influence reference point selection.

Social determinants of the sick building syndrome: exploring the interrelated effects of social position and psychosocial situation

This paper examines the importance of various social factors for the prevalence of “sick building syndrome” (SBS) in residential buildings. A survey has been conducted in Malmö, Sweden, resulting in 1131 randomly selected residents participating in the study (response rate 57 %). Two clusters of social factors were examined: the socio-structural position of the individual and psychosocial aspects of the housing situation. The results show that country of birth, in particular, and also education and employment status are important predictors of “domestic SBS”. “Housing satisfaction” turns out to be an important psychosocial predictor of SBS, explaining, for example, why immigrants report more symptoms than natives.

Who supports redistributive policies in contemporary Japan? An integrative approach to self-interest and trust models

This article investigates determinants of support for redistributive policies by taking an integrative approach with two main models that explain welfare attitudes: a self-interest model and a trust model. While the former focuses on effects of social positions and the latter focuses on effects of trust, there might be interactive effects between these two factors. The authors focus on three types of trust – generalized trust, primordial trust, and trust in institutions – and analyze how trust intervenes in effects of self-interest. They analyze data from a public opinion survey conducted in Japan, and present the results. Whereas generalized trust and trust in institutions alleviate effects of self-interest, primordial trust strengthens them. Furthermore, generalized trust increases support for selective redistributive policies regardless of one’s socio-economic status. These results prove that trust works differently according to one’s socio-economic position and that the three types of trust play different roles in support for redistribution policies.

Overweight status and psychological well-being in adolescent boys and girls: a multilevel analysis

Background: Psychological distress and high body mass index (BMI) are linked in adults, especially in females. Effects of social position and behaviour, and whether obesogenic environments affect adolescents and adults equally are unresolved. The aim was to examine associations between psychological distress and being overweight in adolescents, by sex, accounting for social, lifestyle and contextual factors. Correlation of area-level variation in overweight status in adolescents and adults was investigated. Methods: Height, weight, General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ12) of psychological distress, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, area deprivation and social class were available on 635 male and 618 female adolescents (13–15 years) from two cross-sectional population health surveys conducted in Scotland in 1998–99/2003–04. Multilevel logistic regression modelled overweight (including obese) status accounting for intraclass correlation of adolescents in households within postcode sector areas in health board regions. Univariable analysis examined effects of high (4 or more) GHQ12 score; multivariable analysis further allowed for covariates. Adult data were used to assess the importance of correlation between adolescent and adult area-level variation. Results: Univariably, there was significantly increased risk of being overweight associated with high GHQ12 score for girls but not boys; adolescent and adult area-level variation correlation did not impact. Results remained significant for girls in multivariable analyses (OR = 2.44, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.33–4.50) and non-significant for boys (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 0.56–3.05). Conclusions: Findings indicate being overweight is associated with psychological distress in adolescent girls, but not boys. Effects are not mediated by social, lifestyle or contextual factors.

The physiological effects of social status in the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher

The physiological effects of social rank were examined in three different experiments with Neolamprologus pulcher a cooperatively breeding cichlid, endemic to Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. The effects of rank on physiology between pairs of dominant and subordinate size‐matched fish (experiment 1) and among groups of four size‐matched fish (experiment 2) were examined. A third experiment mimicked the natural social structure in the wild; pairs were observed with other group members including breeders. The effect of social position was investigated on growth rates, liver concentrations of adenosine triphospate (ATP), lipids, proteins, creatine phosphate (CrP), glucose and glycogen as well as plasma cortisol. In naturalistic group settings, dominants displayed higher levels of liver protein and plasma cortisol. In the absence of breeders, dominant individuals (of helper pairs) had higher liver glycogen levels and dominant fish (held in groups of four) grew most. These results support previous cooperatively breeding mammal studies and suggest that dominant individuals experience higher cortisol levels as well as higher growth rates.

Health selection in the Whitehall II study, UK

There has been considerable debate over the importance of the health selection hypothesis for explaining social gradients in health. Although studies have argued that it may not be an important explanation of social gradients in health, previous analyses have not estimated, simultaneously, the relative effect of health on changes in social position and of social position on changes in health (social causation). Cross-lagged longitudinal analyses using structural equation models enable the estimation of the relative size of these pathways which would be useful in determining the relative importance of the health selection hypothesis over the social causation hypothesis. Data from four phases of the Whitehall II study (initially consisting of 10,308 men and women aged 35–55 in the British civil service) were collected over a 10 year period. There was no evidence for an effect of mental (GHQ-30 and SF36) or physical health (SF-36) on changes in employment grade. When financial deprivation was used as a measure of social position, there was a significant effect of mental health on changes in social position among men although this health selection effect was over two and a half times smaller than the effect of social position on changes in health. The results suggest that the development of social gradients in health in the Whitehall II study may not be primarily explained in terms of a health selection effect.

Dimensions of social inequality in the health of women in England: occupational, material and behavioural pathways

This paper examines the role of behavioural and psychosocial risk and protective factors in explaining social inequalities in the general self-assessed health of women. Using path analysis, data from the Health Survey for England (1993) are used to demonstrate how different dimensions of social position (working conditions, general social advantage and material deprivation) have distinct pathways to ill-health. Smoking, diet, alcohol consumption, exercise, social support and job strain were all related to poorer health, but not always in the predicted direction. The effects of social position on health were not fully mediated through these risk and protective factors. Each dimension of social position had unique pathways to ill-health via other unidentified mechanisms. Furthermore, the salience of the three dimensions of social position differed according to the level of labour market attachment. Different path models are required to fit the data for women at home or in full-time or part-time work.

Levels of explanation in the European Journal of Social Psychology

AbstractThe nature of explanation in experimental social psychology is the subject of much controversy. To advance the debate, the present article provides a grid of analysis allowing a more [thorough study of experimental social psychologists] work. Four levels of explanation are distinguished as works can be seen as studying intra‐individual processes (level 1), interindividual but intra‐situational dynamics (level 2), effects of social position in a situational interaction (level 3) and intervention of general beliefs (level 4). An important characteristic of experimental work is the possibility of combining different levels of analysis in the same study, and of surpassing, in this way, the old dichotomy between [psychologizing] and [sociologizing] explanations. Experiments published in the first seven volumes of the European Journal of Social Psychology were explored within this framework.

The effects of social position, race, and sex on work values of ninth-grade students

This study investigated the effect of social class, race, and sex on the work values of ninth-grade students in a large metropolitan area. Measures of work values were obtained using Super's (1970) Work Values Inventory. Factorial analysis of variance and multiple range tests were employed to determine the differences between and among variables. Results indicated that the primary differences were for the dependent variables of race and sex. In general, low social position black females scored low on the work values scales.

Self-derogation and social position: Interaction effects of sex, race, education, and age

The present study investigates the individual and interaction effects of sex, race, education, and age upon self-derogation. Data were collected by survey research methods from a sample (N=500) of the adult population of Harris County (including the city of Houston), Texas. Self-Derogation was measured by a factorially derived index. The individual effects of the social positions upon self-derogation were generally statistically nonsignificant and/or not uniform throughout the population. However, strong interaction effects were observed. Self-derogation was relatively great among: less educated white females; more educated Negro males; and less educated white males, aged 50–59. It was suggested that systematic consideration of the interaction effects of social positions would account for much of the inconsistency apparent in the related literature and would lead to further hypotheses regarding the genesis of negative self-attitudes.