Social Class Differences Research Articles

The development of socioeconomic inequalities in anxiety and depression symptoms over the lifecourse

PurposeSocioeconomic inequalities in anxiety and depression widen with increasing age. This may be due to differences in the incidence or persistence of symptoms. This paper investigates the widening of inequalities in anxiety and depression over the lifecourse.MethodsData were from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study, constituting three cohorts aged approximately 16, 36 and 56 years at baseline and re-visited at 5-yearly intervals for 20 years. Symptoms were measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Adjusting for age and sex, multilevel models with pairs of interviews (n = 6,878) nested within individuals (n = 3,165) were used for each cohort to estimate associations between current symptoms and education or household social class for both those with and without earlier symptoms, approximating socioeconomic differences in incidence and persistence.ResultsInequalities in current symptom levels were present for both those with and without earlier symptoms. In the youngest cohort, those with less education were more likely to experience persistent depression and to progress from anxiety to depression. At older ages there were educational and social class differences in both the persistence and incidence of symptoms, though there was more evidence of differential persistence than incidence in the middle cohort and more evidence of differential incidence than persistence in the oldest cohort.ConclusionsDifferential persistence and symptom progression indicate that intervening to prevent or treat symptoms earlier in life is likely to reduce socioeconomic inequalities later, but attention also needs to be given to late adulthood where differential incidence emerges more strongly than differential persistence.

A Matter of Friendship: Educational Interventions into Culture and Poverty

AbstractContemporary educational reformers have claimed that research on social class differences in child raising justifies programs that aim to lift children out of poverty by means of cultural interventions. Focusing on the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), Ruby Payne's “aha! Process,” and the Harlem Children's Zone as examples, Amy Shuffelton argues that such programs, besides overstepping the social science research, are ethically illegitimate insofar as they undermine the equitable development of civic agency. Shuffelton invokes Aristotelian civic friendship, particularly as interpreted by Danielle Allen and Sibyl Schwarzenbach, as key to a politics that avoids relations of domination and subordination. She concludes that social justice requires that educators involved with culturally interventionist programs recognize the workings of power within schooling and society, that they accept the limits of their own perspectives, and that they remain open to what is of value in child‐raising practices other than those associated with the contemporary middle class.

Social-biological transitions: how does the social become biological?

The present discussion paper sets forward a model within the life course perspective of how the social becomes biological. The model is intended to provide a framework for thinking about such questions as how does social class get into the molecules, cells and tissues of the body to produce social class differences in life expectancy and cause of death? A categorisation of social exposures and biological processes is suggested; and some principles governing their inter-relations proposed. The paper ends by suggesting two public health applications of this approach.

Encountering Social Class Differences at Work: How “Class Work” Perpetuates Inequality

Using a microsociological lens, we develop a theoretical framework that explains how social class distinctions are sustained within organizations. In particular, we introduce the concept of “class work” and explicate the cognitions and practices that members of different classes engage in when they come in contact with each other in cross-class encounters. We also elucidate how class work perpetuates inequality, as well as the consequences of class work on organizations and those at the lower end of the organizational hierarchy. By examining microlevel interactions and how they become institutionalized within organizations as prevailing rules and practices, we contribute to both institutional theory and the sociology of social class differences. We encourage future research on social class and discuss some of the challenges inherent in conducting it.

Cosmo girls: configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings

In this paper we offer a unique contribution to understandings of schooling as a site for the production of social class difference. We bring together the rich body of work that has been conducted on middle-class educational identities, with explorations of the centrality of the feminine in representations of class difference from the field of critical girlhood studies. This is done in order to explore how young femininities mediate the representation of class difference in the environment of the private girls’ school. Drawing from our two research studies, located in private girls’ schools in Australia and the United Kingdom, we argue that the notion of ‘disgust’, commonly used in recent engagements around class, has only limited purchase in understanding the representation of class difference in these schools. It is the inconsistencies and complexities in how class and class relations are produced that we wish to illuminate.

Taiwanese women in China: Integration and mobility in gendered enclaves

While much research on migration and China focuses on the overseas Chinese, this research will instead analyse the migration of Taiwanese to China. This article uses data gathered in Dongguan and Shanghai in 2004–5 with follow-up interviews in 2008–10 to study the migration experiences of Taiwanese in China and to illustrate how class affects the migration of the privileged. Despite the diverse backgrounds of the female respondents considered in this article, most of them had a higher socio-economic status than the Chinese people they encountered. Because of the difference in social class, the respondents were reluctant to mix with locals. The ensuing sense of alienation has partly caused the respondents to identify themselves as less Chinese than before moving to China.

Racial and Social Class Differences in How Parents Respond to Inadequate Achievement: Consequences for Children's Future Achievement

Despite numerous studies on parental involvement in children's academic schooling, there is a dearth of knowledge on how parents respond specifically to inadequate academic performance. This study examines whether 1) racial differences exist in parenting philosophy for addressing inadequate achievement, 2) social class has implications for parenting philosophy, and 3) parents' philosophies are consequential for children's academic achievement. Using data from the Child Development Supplement (N=1041) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we sort parents into two categories-those whose parenting repertoires for addressing poor achievement include punitive responses and those whose repertoires do not. We then determine whether racial differences exist between these categories and how various responses within the aforementioned categories are related to students' academic achievement. The findings show that white and black parents have markedly different philosophies on how to respond to inadequate performance, and these differences appear to impact children's achievement in dramatically different ways. Educators and policy makers should pay particular attention to how parents respond to inadequate achievement as imploring parents of inadequately performing students to be more involved without providing them with some guidance might exacerbate the problem.

Particle Swarm Optimization of MLP for the identification of factors related to Common Mental Disorders

Social class differences in the prevalence of Common Mental Disorder (CMD) are likely to vary according to time, culture and stage of economic development. The present study aimed to investigate the use of optimization of architecture and weights of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for identification of the factors related to CMDs. The identification of the factors was possible by optimizing the architecture and weights of the network. The optimization of architecture and weights of ANNs is based on Particle Swarm Optimization with early stopping criteria. This approach achieved a good generalization control, as well as similar or better results than other techniques, but with a lower computational cost, with the ability to generate small networks and with the advantage of the automated architecture selection, which simplify the training process. This paper presents the results obtained in the experiments with ANNs in which it was observed an average percentage of correct classification of individuals with positive diagnostic for the CMDs of 90.59%.

Relative Deprivation and Mental Health in Canadian Adolescents

Prior research on social class differences in adult mental illness suggests that relative differences in affluence impact mental health and well-being more than absolute affluence. However, it is unclear whether relative deprivation also relates to adolescent mental health and to both internalizing and externalizing dimensions of mental health. This study examined the association between relative deprivation in schools and mental health in a community sample of 26,069 adolescent participants of the Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. School-based surveys measured five dimensions of mental health and well-being: internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, positive well-being, prosocial behaviour and life satisfaction. Regression analyses found that relative deprivation positively related to internalizing problems and negatively related to well-being and life satisfaction after differences in absolute affluence were held constant. However, relative deprivation did not relate to externalizing dimensions of mental health (externalizing symptoms and prosocial behaviour). These findings extend epidemiological evidence of links between income inequality and internalizing psychopathology to adolescent populations and underscore the influential role of socioeconomic status in adolescent health. Suggestions for future research and the practical implications of the findings are discussed. Keywords: Adolescence, relative deprivation, social rank, mental health, Health Behaviour in School-aged Children. Read more →

Social class and morbidity differences among Kuwaiti children.

Research from both developed and developing countries has shown that various indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) are inversely associated with infant and child mortality. However, findings on the association between SES and morbidity are less clear. The impact of SES upon diarrheal and respiratory morbidity among children aged 5 years or less was assessed through a survey of mothers in 2 of Kuwait's 5 major residential areas. Findings are based upon interviews conducted during January-March 1994 with the mothers of 781 children of maximum age 5 years in a sample of Kuwaiti households. Only Kuwaiti nationals were included in the study. Higher SES women used health care facilities relatively more often. However, after controlling for relevant demographic factors, the effect of SES upon morbidity varied for diarrheal and respiratory illnesses. There were no significant differences in the reported morbidity due to diarrheal illness in either the 2 areas or the various SES groups. An inverse association was identified between SES level and morbidity due to respiratory illness, with children in the low and medium SES groups having higher respiratory morbidity than those in the high SES group.

Workplace Inequality: Examining the Impacts of Social Class on Organizational Life

The topic of social class has become an increasingly salient feature within American contemporary discourse. Yet, much remains unknown about how social class differences manifest in or impact organ...

Parental expectations relating to children’s higher education in urban China: Cultural capital and social class

This article employs Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital to examine the social class differences in the expectations relating to higher education among parents and students in urban China. This study fills a gap in understanding the complex factors that underpin parental expectations regarding children’s higher education. This study has been conducted using mixed methods, comprising a large-scale questionnaire with semi-structured interviews. The data have revealed that parental expectations of their children’s higher education are classed. There is a significant difference between middle-class and working-class parental expectations regarding children’s higher education due to difference in the volumes of cultural capital. It is clear that some of the middle-class parents have a particular concern as to whether the campus culture matches their children’s personality.

Social class differentials in demographic characteristics among South Africa’s accomplished adult Black middle and Black lower classes in comparison with the accomplished adult White middle class

African Population Studies; Demography and Population Studies Programme; Union for African Population Studies; demography; Clifford Odimegwu; Africa; African journals; journals; uaps-uepa; Age distribution; marriage; fertility; mortality; net migration; language; migration; urbanisation

Perbedaan Kelas Sosial sebagai Penyebab Ijime dalam Novel Grotesque

Ijime or bullying is a common problem in Japanese schools, and even, ijime actions sometimes result in the victims or the victims commit to suicide. Ijime is also depicted in the Grotesqe novel on a character, Kazue Sato. Kazue Sato is a girl who desperately wants to enroll an elite girl school, Q school. The school is for students from high social class. Nevertheless, by passing the strict exams, intelligent students from different social classes can go to this school. Article elaborates the relationship between social class differences in the actions of ijime, using a corpus of works Natsuo Kirino’s novel, Grotesque. After analyzing the data with descriptive method of analysis, it is found that there is a relationship between social class differences and ijime actions. Students from different social classes, although they are cleverer, cannot mingle with students from higher social classes. In fact, students from lower social classes experience ijime actions from other students.

Beschwerdenvalidierung bei Rehabilitanden mit Migrationshintergrund in der Psychosomatik

The aim of this study is to investigate differences in the occurrence of symptom over-reporting in insurants with and without migration background as well as to determine factors that predict the occurrence of symptom over-reporting. A survey-based screening of validating complaints including Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS), L-scale (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - MMPI-2), Health-49 and Predictive validity of a brief scale measuring the subjective prognosis of gainful employment (SPE-scale) was carried out with 457 German insurants and 138 insurants with migration background previous to their inpatient rehabilitation treatment. Symptom over-reporting measured by the SIMS could be observed in 33% of the German insurants and 50% of the insurants with migration background. Highest predictive power relative to symptom over-reporting was achieved by Health-49-score followed by social class and sex. Percentage of symptom over-reporting is higher in insurants with migration background than in German insurants, but taking into account more factors, differences in German and Non-German insurants can be largely explained by differences in social class and gender distribution. Studies applying multi-method symptom validation are required to clarify the causes of high prevalence of sympom over-reporting in German and Non-German insurants.

Religion, Race, Social Class, and Gender Differences in Dating and Hooking Up among College Students

Students at a mid-size state university in the Southeast were surveyed to examine religion, race, social class, and gender differences in dating and hooking up. Our analyses revealed that dating and hooking up coexist on campus and most students defined hooking up as a sexual encounter. Race impacted dating but the other demographics, social class and gender were not significant for either dating or hooking up. Conservative Protestants hooked up less than Catholics and other Protestants. Seniors have dated and hooked up more than other students, especially freshmen. How students define hooking up impacts their probability of hooking up and their feelings after hooking up also have an effect.

Cohabiting Men’s Preferences for and Roles in Determining the Outcomes of Unexpected Pregnancies1

Growing numbers of men are fathering children within cohabiting unions. However, we know little about their desires for and preferred roles in making fertility decisions. To address this gap, I use data from 61 in-depth interviews with working- and middle-class cohabiting men to examine their stated preferences should their partners experience an unplanned pregnancy. For some men, the decision appears to be a relatively stable personal or political one, but most draw on their current relationships and/or financial or maturational situations when noting their desires. A subsample of 22 men from this group who have experienced pregnancies is used to explore men’s actual roles in negotiating whether a conception was terminated or carried to term. Despite the fact that most men would like to have input into decisions to abort or carry a pregnancy to term, the majority were not actually involved in making decisions with their partners (especially the decision to abort) when pregnancies occurred. Results are interpreted in light of social class differences in family formation processes.

Child-Rearing Values in Southern Brazil

The authors examine social-class differences in parents’ child-rearing values for autonomy, self-direction, and conformity and the extent to which their values are influenced by their perceptions of their developing children’s characteristics. Parents from 25 middle-class or working-class families in a Brazilian city participated in interviews, observations, and completed Kohn’s Q-Sort measure when their children were 3, 36, and 72 months of age. Parents’ child-rearing values differed significantly by social class: middle-class parents were more likely to value autonomy and self-direction in their children, whereas working-class parents were more likely to value conformity. In addition, the strength and direction of parental values changed significantly as their children developed. Parents were less likely to value autonomy and self-direction when their children were 36 months than when they were either 3 or 72 months. Middle-class parents were more likely to value conformity when their children were 36 than when they were younger or older.

Why do males in Scotland die younger than those in England? Evidence from three prospective cohort studies.

BackgroundTo examine explanations for the higher rates of male mortality in two Scottish cohorts compared with a cohort in south-east England for which similar data were collected.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe compared three cohort studies which recruited participants in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A total of 13,884 men aged 45–64 years at recruitment in the Whitehall occupational cohort (south-east England), 3,956 men in the Collaborative occupational cohort and 6,813 men in the Renfrew & Paisley population-based study (both central Scotland) were included in analyses of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. All-cause mortality was 25% (age-adjusted hazard ratio 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI)1.21 to 1.30) and 41% (hazard ratio 1.41 (95% CI 1.36 to 1.45) higher in the Collaborative and Renfrew & Paisley cohorts respectively compared to the Whitehall cohort. The higher mortality rates were substantially attenuated by social class (to 8% and 17% higher respectively), and were effectively eliminated upon the further addition of the other baseline risk factors, such as smoking habit, lung function and pre-existing self-reported morbidity. Despite this, coronary heart disease mortality remained 11% and 16% higher, stroke mortality 45% and 37% higher, mortality from accidents and suicide 51% and 70% higher, and alcohol-related mortality 46% and 73% higher in the Collaborative and Renfrew & Paisley cohorts respectively compared with the Whitehall cohort in the fully adjusted model.Conclusions/SignificanceThe higher all-cause, respiratory, and lung cancer male mortality in the Scottish cohorts was almost entirely explained by social class differences and higher prevalence of known risk factors, but reasons for the excess mortality from stroke, alcohol-related causes, accidents and suicide remained unknown.

What's in a Relationship? An Examination of Social Capital, Race and Class in Mentoring Relationships

After 25 years of intense scrutiny, social capital remains an important yet highly debated concept in social science research. This research uses data from youth and mentors in several chapters of Big Brothers/Big Sisters to assess the importance of different mentoring relationship characteristics in creating positive outcomes among youths. The literature on social capital suggests that key characteristics are: (1. the amount of time spent between individuals, (2. racial similarity, (3. level of trust, (4. social class difference, and (5. intergenerational closure. I examine the effects of these social capital measures on academic and deviant behavioral outcomes and run models using propensity score weights to address selection bias. The results indicate that both the amount of time spent in a relationship and the level of trust consistently have positive effects for youths. Counter to what some theory suggests, race-matching and closure between parent and mentor have limited effects, and social class difference between individuals has no significant effect on any of the examined outcomes. These findings have important implications for future work on social capital and adolescent relationships in general.