Role Of Subjective Social Status Research Articles

Subjective Socioeconomic Status and Early Life Conditions

We study the role of subjective social status on health and its determinants, with a particular emphasis on the predictive power of early-life conditions on subjective social status. A well-established literature links early-life conditions to later-life objective measures of socioeconomic status, but little attention has been paid to the effects on subjective socioeconomic status. We find that socioeconomic factors during childhood are extremely important predictors of subjective social status, even after controlling for contemporaneous socioeconomic conditions. In particular, experiencing good health, having access to electricity, and having married parents during childhood increases one's chance of being in high subjective social status during adulthood, which leads to better health, even after conditioning for objective social status. The results therefore show an additional psychological and behavioral channel through which early-life conditions influence later outcomes, and which has not been yet studied in sufficient detail.

Perceived social status and unhealthy habits in Korea

Background: The association between socioeconomic status and unhealthy behaviors is well-documented in the literature. Less is known, however, about the role of subjective social status, but recent evidence shows that perceived standing in the social hierarchy has important roles in health.Methods: This paper studies the association between perceived social status and the consumption of alcohol and tobacco among the South Korean elderly. Using data from a large longitudinal survey in Korea, we empirically estimate these correlations while controlling for a large set of confounders that include measures of objective social status.Results: Respondents who view themselves as lower in the social hierarchy are more likely to be active smokers but equally likely to be drinkers as respondents who view themselves better off socially. We also find that among smokers and drinkers, the actual amounts of tobacco and alcohol consumed correlate well with perceived social status. In terms of drinking, the higher the subjective social status, the lower the amount of alcohol consumed. In terms of smoking, people at the two extremes of the social hierarchy smoke more than people in the middle.Conclusions: South Korea is facing unique problems regarding aging, economic and social inequality, and high rates of tobacco and alcohol consumption. Understanding the role of perceived social status on these unhealthy habits is therefore extremely important for designing policies that address these health issues from multiple perspectives.

The Role of Subjective Social Status between Family Economic Stress and Life Satisfaction in Korea: Focusing on Household Heads

The Role of Subjective Social Status between Family Economic Stress and Life Satisfaction in Korea: Focusing on Household Heads

The role of subjective social status in socioeconomic inequalities in mortality: Evidence from the English longitudinal study of ageing (ELSA)

Objectives To study whether subjective social status (SSS) was associated with mortality and its role in the associations between objective socioeconomic position (SEP) measures and mortality. Methods Cox regression was used to model the associations between SSS (measured using a 10-point continuous scale), objective SEP measures and mortality in a sample of 9972 people aged ≥ 50 years from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing over a 10-year follow-up (2002–2013). Results SSS was associated with all-cause, cardiovascular, cancer and other mortality. Adjustment for covariates fully explained the association between SSS and cancer mortality, and partially the remaining associations. In people aged 50–64 years, SSS mediated to a varying extent the associations between objective SEP measures and all-cause mortality. In people aged ≥ 65 years, SSS did not mediate much these associations, and to some extent was associated with mortality independent of objective SEP measures. In both age groups, wealth partially explained the association between SSS and mortality. Conclusions SSS is a strong predictor of mortality at older ages. Its role in the association between objective SEP and mortality appears to be complex.

The Effect of Psychological Suzhi on Problem Behaviors in Chinese Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Subjective Social Status and Self-esteem.

In this study, we examined subjective social status (SSS) and self-esteem as potential mediators between the association of psychological suzhi and problem behaviors in a sample of 1271 Chinese adolescents (44.5% male, grades 7–12). The results showed that SSS and self-esteem were fully mediating the relationship between psychological suzhi and problem behaviors. Moreover, the indirect effect was stronger via self-esteem than via SSS. These findings perhaps provide insight into the preliminary effect that SSS and self-esteem underlie psychological suzhi’s effect on adolescents’ problem behaviors, and also are important in helping school-teachers and administrators to develop a better understanding of problem behaviors in their schools as a pre-requisite to the development of more effective behaviors management practices from the perspective of psychological suzhi. Implications and limitations in the present study have also been discussed.

Income inequality and the developing child: Is it all relative?

Children from low-income families are at heightened risk for a number of poor outcomes, including depression, antisocial behavior, poor physical health, and educational failure. Growing up in poverty is generally seen as toxic for children. However, less is known about how the "economic distance" between children and their peers influences behavior and health. This article examines how both poverty and the growing divide between low-income children and their peers may be influencing low-income children's life chances. Among wealthy nations, children in countries with higher levels of income inequality consistently fare worse on multiple indices of health, educational attainment, and well-being. New research also suggests that low-income children may be experiencing worse outcomes, and a form of "double disadvantage," when they live and attend school alongside more affluent versus similarly positioned peers. The role of subjective social status in explaining why some low-income children appear to suffer when growing up alongside more affluent peers is explored, alongside a call for additional research focused on how children come to understand, and respond to, their perceived social status. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mann und Rang – die Rolle von Konkurrenz für die Männergesundheit

There exists a consistent, continuous, and partly strong gender-specific association between social status and health: Men react more sensitively than women to their social status, e.g., concerning mortality. A gender-difference becomes apparent especially concerning partly psycho-socially determined diseases with a conspicuous role of subjective social status. Status-induced psycho-social strain seems to be even more relevant for men than for women. A chronic over-activation of the HPA axis plays a central role in the neurophysiology of status-induced psychic stress. The strongest HPA activity is triggered by competitive situations. On the one hand men are more competitive than women; on the other hand they show a stronger stress response to social-evaluative situations. Chronic HPA over-activation is a risk factor for many widespread diseases and is particularly associated with depressive disorders. Therefore, a high grade of competition and a hierarchy-oriented self-image is considered to be a salient societal hazard factor. So far human rank behaviour has attracted relatively little scientific attention and competition-specific health-related approaches are rare until now. One currently and broadly discussed approach to influence the degree of competition focuses on societal egalitarianism. Approaches that are founded on culturally established competition-decreasing strategies may be more sophisticated, for example, humility-inducing approaches. Setting approaches in particular could represent a promising template to focus on competition as an important topic in health promotion and prevention in formative environments. Attention should be paid to the conflict of objectives between competitiveness as a risk-inducing health determinant and its role as a growth engine for our society and economy.

A Multiple-Group Path Analysis of the Role of Everyday Discrimination on Self-Rated Physical Health among Latina/os in the USA

Few studies have examined the psychosocial mechanisms through which self-reported discrimination may influence the health status of Latinos. This study examined the mediating role of subjective social status in the USA and psychological distress on the relation between everyday discrimination and self-rated physical health, and the moderating role of gender and ethnicity. A US population-based sample of Latinos (N = 2,554) was drawn from the National Latino and Asian American Study. Respondents completed measures of everyday discrimination, subjective social status, psychological distress, and self-rated physical health. Path analysis revealed that among the total sample, subjective social status and psychological distress sequentially mediated the effect of everyday discrimination on self-rated physical health. Psychological distress was a more consistent mediator across Latino subgroups. Gender and ethnicity moderated the mediation model. This study provides a systematic examination of how psychosocial mechanisms may operate differently or similarly across Latino subgroups.

Socio-economic status and health in a marginalized group: the role of subjective social status among prison inmates

One problem in studies of social inequality in health is that traditional socio-economic indicators are unsuitable for groups finding themselves on the outside of those societal arenas from which measures of education, income and occupation are generated. A measure of subjective social position has accordingly been proposed as an addition to the traditional objective socio-economic measures. The present study investigates this concepts' usefulness as an addition to objective SES markers in a sample of prison inmates, known for their marginalized position in society as well as their poor health. Analyses are based on the male part (n = 225) of a nationally representative sample of prison inmates in Norway. Outcome measures are self-rated health, long-standing illness or disability, mental health problems, perceived change in health status and drug use. Analyses of correlation as well as multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Subjective social status was bivariately related to all of the health outcomes, except long-standing illness. Multivariate analyses indicated that subjective social status influenced the odds of experiencing mental health problems, but not any of the other health outcomes when controlling for the other independent variables. Subjective social status may add important information to our understanding of the relationship between social disadvantage and mental health in a marginalized social group such as prison inmates.

Socioeconomic status and health: The role of subjective social status

Studies have suggested that subjective social status (SSS) is an important predictor of health. This study examined the link between SSS and health in old age and investigated whether SSS mediated the associations between objective indicators of socioeconomic status and health. It used cross-sectional data from the second wave (2004–2005) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which were collected through personal interviews and nurse visits. The study population consisted of 3368 men and 4065 women aged 52 years or older. The outcome measures included: self-rated health, long-standing illness, depression, hypertension, diabetes, central obesity, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein. The main independent variable was SSS measured using a scale representing a 10-rung ladder. Wealth, education, and occupational class were employed as covariates along with age and marital status and also, in additional analyses, as the main independent variables. Gender-specific logistic and linear regression analyses were performed. In age-adjusted analyses SSS was related positively to almost all health outcomes. Many of these relationships remained significant after adjustment for covariates. In men, SSS was significantly ( p ≤ 0.05) related to self-rated health, depression, and long-standing illness after adjustment for all covariates, while its association with fibrinogen became non-significant. In women, after adjusting for all covariates, SSS was significantly associated with self-rated health, depression, long-standing illness, diabetes, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, but its associations with central obesity and C-reactive protein became non-significant. Further analysis suggested that SSS mediated fully or partially the associations between education, occupational class and self-reported and clinical health measures. On the contrary, SSS did not mediate wealth's associations with the outcome measures, except those with self-reported health measures. Our results suggest that SSS is an important correlate of health in old age, possibly because of its ability to epitomize life-time achievement and socioeconomic status.

Subjective social status: its determinants and its association with measures of ill-health in the Whitehall II study

The purpose of this study was twofold—(1) investigate the role of subjective social status as a predictor of ill-health, with a further exploration of the extent to which this relationship could be accounted for by conventional measures of socioeconomic position; (2) examine the determinants of a relatively new measure of subjective social status used in this study. A 10 rung self-anchoring scale was used to measure subjective social status in the Whitehall II study, a prospective cohort study of London-based civil service employees. Results indicate that subjective status is a strong predictor of ill-health, and that education, occupation and income do not explain this relationship fully for all the health measures examined. The results provide further support for the multidimensional nature of both social inequality and health. Multiple regression shows subjective status to be determined by occupational position, education, household income, satisfaction with standard of living, and feeling of financial security regarding the future. The results suggest that subjective social status reflects the cognitive averaging of standard markers of socioeconomic situation and is free of psychological biases.