The Mediating Roles of Perceived Stress and Health Behaviors in the Relation Between Objective, Subjective, and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Perceived Health

Abstract

Background Objective, subjective, and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with perceived health, morbidity, and mortality. Purpose We investigated whether perceived stress and health behaviors mediated the relation between the three types of SES and perceived health. Methods Participants (N = 508) attending a public clinic completed a computerized survey assessing objective SES (income, education, employment); health behaviors; perceived stress; and perceived health. They also indicated their social standing relative to others (subjective SES) and provided their current address to determine neighborhood SES. Results In a structural equation model including all three SES types, lower objective and subjective SES were related to poorer perceived health. When mediators were included in the model, there were significant indirect effects of: (a) SES on health through stress; and (b) SES on health through stress and health compromising behaviors. Conclusions Interventions to reduce the impact of stressors could improve the health of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals.

Socioeconomic Status Interacts with Conscientiousness and Neuroticism to Predict Circulating Concentrations of Inflammatory Markers

“…Composite or latent measures of SES capture the aggregate effects of multiple socioeconomic indicators and are therefore useful in investigating a general gradient of socioeconomic position (3,42). In supplementary analyses we examined each indicator of SES separately.…”

The Potential Explanatory Role of Perceived Stress in Associations Between Subjective Social Status and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Homeless Smokers

“…***p < .001. Reitzel, Kendzor, et al, 2014;Reitzel et al, 2013;Senn et al, 2014;Whembolua et al, 2012). (Cohen et al, 1983) is a four-item scale that measures the degree to which situations in one's life are appraised as stressful during the past week.…”

Do We Know Where We Stand? Neighborhood Relative Income, Subjective Social Status, and Health

“…Researchers have also considered the predictive power of SSS when in combination with objective measures of household and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES; Chen & Paterson, 2006;Senn, Walsh & Carey, 2014). For example, in a structural equation model, Senn et al (2014) included objective indicators of individual SES, neighborhood SES, and SSS as predictors of perceived health with health compromising behavior and perceived stress as mediating pathways.…”

“…For example, in a structural equation model, Senn et al (2014) included objective indicators of individual SES, neighborhood SES, and SSS as predictors of perceived health with health compromising behavior and perceived stress as mediating pathways. By including objective economic indicators at multiple levels in predictive models with SSS, this approach models the independent contribution of each indicator to health.…”