Concerned Whether You’ll Make It in Life? Status Anxiety Uniquely Explains Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Ever feel concerned that you may not achieve your career goals or feel worried about where your life is going? Such examples may reflect the experience of status anxiety, that is, concerns that one may be stuck or not able to move up in life, or worries that one may be too low in standing compared to society's standards. Status anxiety is believed to be exacerbated by economic inequality and negatively affect wellbeing. While job satisfaction is an important determinant of well-being, no research has examined whether status anxiety can also help explain people's satisfaction with their jobs. We tested whether status anxiety differs from other organizational constructs and uniquely relates to job satisfaction among full-time working adults. In a pilot study, we found that status anxiety is separate from the concept of job insecurity (e.g., perceived threat of job loss). Results of our main study also indicated that higher status anxiety significantly predicted lower job satisfaction beyond several other indicators of organizational attitudes (job insecurity, occupational self-efficacy, distributive, procedural, and interactional justice), as well as the tendency to seek status and several background factors (e.g., income, education, perceived socioeconomic status). We discuss the unique role of status anxiety in job satisfaction and the implications of this research to our understanding of status concerns, as well as organizational attitudes and policies.

Economic Inequality Increases Status Anxiety Through Perceived Contextual Competitiveness

“…As PEI was found to increase personal SA only through perceived contextual SA, interventions should focus on the latter variable. Work settings that incentivize cooperation vs. competition, for instance, could dampen SA, contributing to higher job satisfaction and wellbeing ( Keshabyan and Day, 2020 ). In the same vein, disseminating alternative normative messages oriented at reducing perceived competition based on material resources, and at increasing cooperation among low and middle classes for a general improvement in quality life, would contribute to building more cohesive and resilient societies.…”

“…Status anxiety: Participants completed the Spanish Version of the Status Anxiety scale ( Keshabyan and Day, 2020 ; Melita et al, 2020 ). The scale consists of five items and participants were instructed to rate their agreement with each item on the scale from 1 ( totally disagree ) to 7 ( totally agree ).…”

The Relationship Between Work-to-Family Conflict and Conspicuous Consumption: An Identity Theory Perspective

“…The results in M 3 showed that the interaction effect of WFC and work-family centrality on status anxiety was significant (B = –0.108, SE = 0.041, p < 0.01). Then, to examine the interaction effect in more detail, a simple slope test was performed, followed by Preacher et al, 105 The results showed that the effect of daily WFC on daily status anxiety was weaker when work-family centrality was high (B = 0.145, SE = 0.004, p < 0.01, 95% CI = [0.072, 0.217]), and stronger when work-family centrality was low (B = 0.312, SE = 0.047, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.234, 0.389]). In addition, the difference in the effects between the two groups was significant (B = –0.167, SE = 0.064, p < 0.01, 95% CI = [–0.273, –0.061]).…”

“…Daily status anxiety was measured using the 5-item Status Anxiety Scale developed by Keshabyan and Day. 105 The items were revised to adapt to the daily diary methodology by adding “today” in the item description. An example item was, “Today, I worry about my current low position”.…”

Perceived Stress Associated Factors in Workers at a Public University

“…According to the stress of higher status hypothesis, workers with more significant resources often experience tremendous stress; such status-related concerns are believed to contribute to chronic stress (23) . The results of this study are relevant because high stress in the higher-level professionals represents the presence of stress in the leadership, which can have important consequences to the work environment in terms of communication and social support for the team.…”