(Un)healthy lifestyles of Sheffield’s residents: Socio-economic and psychosocial deprivation

Abstract

This study investigated the pathway of inequality, linking socio-economic, psychological and lifestyle factors, in the context of the health and wellbeing of the urban population of Sheffield, UK. In order to identify the pathway of inequality, the study adopted a quantitative methodology using structural equation modelling. The research contributes to knowledge by combining Bourdieu’s (2010) social theory with the psychological theory of trait selfcontrol (Tangney et al., 2004, Baumeister et al., 2019) and Sen’s (2009; 2010) economic theory to identify the pathway of multidimensional and perpetual inequalities in health and healthy lifestyles. The thesis presents structural models of both healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. The proposed healthy lifestyle model demonstrates the intertwined nature of higher socio-economic background, higher levels of trait self-control and healthy lifestyles (i.e. healthy diet, higher levels of physical activity, and smoking abstention). By comparison, the unhealthy lifestyle model demonstrates the interlinkages between lower socio-economic background, lower levels of trait self-control and unhealthy lifestyles (i.e. unhealthy diet, lower levels of physical activity, binge drinking and smoking). The study makes several conceptual contributions in the context of Bourdieu’s social theory and Baumeister’s psychological theory of trait self-control and willpower. Equally, the findings highlight both general and specific factors of multidimensional and perpetual inequalities in health which have a number of practical implications relating to health-related interventions and policies.