The Buffer Function of Wealth in Socioemotional Responses to Covid‐19 in Italy

Abstract

The social stratification of material consequences of individual‐level disruptive events is a widely researched topic. Less is known about the stratification of psychological outcomes in response to contextual‐level disruptive events. We aim to fill this gap by investigating the aftermath of the Covid‐19 pandemic on individuals’ dispositional optimism and the stratification based on unequal wealth resources. The study focuses on Italy, the first European country to be strongly hit by Covid‐19, and one characterised by high levels of private savings and homeownership. Theoretically, we draw on the conventional social inequalities framework informed by insights from the literature on natural disasters, positing that wealth‐related resource disparities may have stratified the socioemotional response to the pandemic. Empirically, we leverage a combination of individual‐level longitudinal survey data (Bank of Italy’s Special Survey of Italian Households) and municipality‐level official statistics on excess mortality (Italian National Institute of Statistics), covering the first 17 months of the Covid‐19 pandemic in Italy. Results indicate overall negative consequences of severe exposure to risks associated with the pandemic on optimism. However, we found evidence in line with a post‐traumatic growth scenario, as optimism slightly increased over the course of the pandemic. The insurance function of wealth emerges in the higher optimism of individuals with more resources. Nevertheless, resource disparities are not translated into stark differences in susceptibility to risk exposure or post‐traumatic growth. Overall, our findings support a limited insurance function of wealth in the socioemotional sphere.

The Role of Self-Compassion and Attributions in the Mental Health of Older Adolescents amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…People with a more negative attribution style tend to ascribe unpleasant events to internal, stable, and global causes but positive events to external, unstable, and specific causes, which, after numerous aversive events that we perceive to be uncontrollable, can lead to the deterioration of physical and mental health and eventually to a state of learned helplessness [39]. The outcomes of learned helplessness vary from a lack of commitment to severe depression, particularly regarding self-generated stressors [40].…”

Wealth Stratification and the Insurance Function of Wealth

“…Five of the six studies carry out quantitative data analyses, and one study (Carmichael, 2023) decided on a qualitative research design. Three out of six studies measure wealth in terms of housing wealth (homeownership/tenure status and housing value; see Althaber et al, 2023;Bedük, 2023;Heidenreich & Broschinski, 2023), one study measures it in terms of financial wealth (Rapp & Humer, 2023) and another creates an index to directly measure the insurance capacity of wealth (Gritti et al, 2023). One study investigates high-net-worth individuals (Carmichael, 2023).…”

“…The first two contributions test the insurance function of wealth each for a single country but under very different circumstances: Bedük (2023) tests the insurance function of wealth against job loss in the UK, while Gritti et al (2023) test the insurance function of wealth against the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy. Bedük (2023) examines the effect of job loss on several outcomes and its moderation by wealth in the UK with household panel data from 1991 to 2008.…”

“…Also, he finds a distinct moderating effect of the housing value on poverty. Gritti et al (2023) analyze the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy on individuals' psychological and socioemotional responses-measured as dispositional optimism. To operationalize the insurance function of wealth as directly as possible, they create an "insurance capacity" index.…”