Socioeconomic Status and Psychological Well-Being: Revisiting the Role of Subjective Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a complex and multidimensional construct, encompassing both independent objective characteristics (e.g., income or education) and subjective people's ratings of their placement in the socioeconomic spectrum. Within the growing literature on subjective SES belongingness and psychological well-being, subjective indices of SES have tended to center on the use of pictorial rank-related social ladders where individuals place themselves relative to others by simultaneously considering their income, educational level, and occupation. This approach, albeit consistent with the idea of these social ladders as summative or cognitive SES markers, might potentially constrain individuals' conceptions of their SES. This research (N = 368; M age = 39.67, SD = 13.40) is intended to expand prior investigations on SES and psychological well-being by revisiting the role of subjective SES. In particular, it (a) proposes an innovative adaptation of the traditional MacArthur Scale of subjective SES to income, education, and occupation, thus resulting in three separate social ladders; and (b) tests the empirical contribution of such three social ladders to psychological well-being. Overall, our findings showed that the novel education and occupation ladders (excluding the income ladder) are predictive of a significant part of the variance levels of psychological well-being that is not due to canonical objective metrics of SES (i.e., income, education, and occupation), or to the conventional MacArthur Scale of subjective SES. Although preliminary, these results underscore the need to further reconsider (subjective) SES-related conceptualization and measurement strategies to gather a more comprehensive understanding of the SES-psychological well-being link.

Expectations of trustworthiness in cross-status interactions

“…We documented that the household-income level of trustees outweighed the other status cues we manipulated in this study. Social status is a multidimensional phenomenon, and previous research has shown that not all of these dimensions affect personal dispositions similarly (Navarro-Carrillo et al, 2020;Trautmann et al, 2013). Nonetheless, the effect of income on trustworthiness has been documented (Ermisch & Gambetta, 2016), and in line with previous research indicating that the poor are more attuned to the economic dimensions of everyday experiences (Shah et al, 2018), it seems that household income is, for them, a more meaningful status cue in risky economic exchanges.…”

Explaining subjective social status in two countries: The relative importance of education, occupation, income and childhood circumstances

“…It is claimed that objective indicators ‘produce’ social status, and that people's perceived social status is health-enhancing ( Marmot, 2004 ). However, little is known about the relative importance of these indicators in the subjective assessment of individuals' placement in the social hierarchy ( Navarro-Carrillo et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, the literature has confirmed a lasting impact of childhood SEP on adult health and socioeconomic conditions ( Case et al, 2005 ).…”

“…In this paper, we have quantified respondents' implicit weighting of education, occupation and income in explaining their own subjective SEP, as the relative importance of these factors is not well understood in the assessment of subjective SEP ( Navarro-Carrillo et al, 2020 ). We have further provided new insights into the importance of childhood SEP, measured using childhood financial circumstances and parents’ education level, in determining subjective SEP, to investigate whether there are determinants of adult subjective SEP that can be traced back to early-life conditions, independently of objective SEP.…”

Social belongingness and wellbeing: a review of constructs and evidence as introduction to the special Frontiers in Psychology-Social Psychology issue

“…The association between income and wellbeing is similar to the subjective SES pictorial or ladder scale and wellbeing correlation (r = .22) but stronger than the perceived SES and wellbeing association (Tan et al, 2020;Howell & Howell, 2008;Zell et al, 2018). Navarro-Carrillo et al (2020) revisited the role of subjective social class in the social class-psychological well-being relationship. They adapted the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (Adler et al, 2000)-a pictorial social ladder that represents one of the most widely used measures-to income, education, and occupation.…”

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This monograph presents a set of studies that examine the psychosocial determinants of well-being. Navarro-Carrillo et al (2020) analyzes in this monograph a classic issue: the association between different measures of socioeconomic status (i.e., objective and subjective) and psychological well-being. Objective SES is usually measured by income and educational attainment.

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