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Crielaard L, Motazedi E, Galenkamp H, van de Werfhorst HG, Hulvej Rod N, Kuipers MAG, Nicolaou M, Stronks K. Socioeconomic Inequalities in Type 2 Diabetes: Mediation Through Status Anxiety? Int J Public Health 2023; 68:1606069. [PMID: 37849688 PMCID: PMC10577225 DOI: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1606069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives: While status anxiety has received attention as a potential mechanism generating health inequalities, empirical evidence is still limited. Studies have been ecological and have largely focused on mental and not physical health outcomes. Methods: We conducted individual-level analyses to assess status anxiety (feelings of inferiority resulting from social comparisons) and resources (financial difficulties) as mediators of the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) (education/occupation/employment status) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). We used cross-sectional data of 21,150 participants (aged 18-70 years) from the Amsterdam-based HELIUS study. We estimated associations using logistic regression models and estimated mediated proportions using natural effect modelling. Results: Odds of status anxiety were higher among participants with a low SES [e.g., OR = 2.66 (95% CI: 2.06-3.45) for elementary versus academic occupation]. Odds of T2D were 1.49 (95% CI: 1.12-1.97) times higher among participants experiencing status anxiety. Proportion of the SES-T2D relationship mediated was 3.2% (95% CI: 1.5%-7.0%) through status anxiety and 10.9% (95% CI: 6.6%-18.0%) through financial difficulties. Conclusion: Status anxiety and financial difficulties played small but consistent mediating roles. These individual-level analyses underline status anxiety's importance and imply that status anxiety requires attention in efforts to reduce health inequalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loes Crielaard
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Ehsan Motazedi
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Henrike Galenkamp
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | | | - Naja Hulvej Rod
- Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mirte A. G. Kuipers
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Mary Nicolaou
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Karien Stronks
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Filippi S, Salvador Casara BG, Pirrone D, Yerkes M, Suitner C. Economic inequality increases the number of hours worked and decreases work-life balance perceptions: longitudinal and experimental evidence. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230187. [PMID: 37859836 PMCID: PMC10582591 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
International institutions' attention to work-life balance (WLB) demonstrates the global breadth of this issue. Yet the scientific community has thus far paid little attention to its structural underpinnings and to the interplay between these macro-level underpinnings and individual psychological factors. We examine the contextual role of economic inequality at the national level as a significant factor influencing working time and WLB perceptions using multiple empirical strategies. In the first set of studies (1a and 1b), we compared countries with different levels of inequality (Study 1a with 37 countries, Study 1b with longitudinal data from 34 countries, N = 254) and found increased working time and reduced WLB in highly unequal countries. In a pilot study (N = 81) and in the pre-registered Studies 2 (N = 338) and 3 (N = 499) we corroborated this evidence with an experimentally induced inequality perception, reporting an indirect effect of inequality on WLB (Studies 2 and 3) and working time (Study 3) through status anxiety and competitiveness. In Study 2, we manipulated socio-economic class in addition to economic inequality, showing that the detrimental effect of inequality on WLB is especially marked for participants assigned to a low-class condition. This research contributes to an integrated understanding of the impact of economic inequality and socio-economic class in shaping WLB and provides useful insights for organizations to develop context-specific policies to improve employees' WLB that take both individual and structural factors into account.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Filippi
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | | | - Davide Pirrone
- Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Mara Yerkes
- Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Caterina Suitner
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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Velandia-Morales A, Rodríguez-Bailón R, Martínez R. Normative effect of economic inequality: empirical evidence about conspicuous consumption ( Efecto normativo de la desigualdad económica: evidencias empíricas sobre el consumo conspicuo). INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023. [DOI: 10.1080/02134748.2023.2181611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/08/2023]
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Melita D, Rodríguez-Bailón R, Willis GB. Does income inequality increase status anxiety? Not directly, the role of perceived upward and downward mobility. BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023. [PMID: 36929602 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Status anxiety theory posits that higher income inequality leads people to attribute more importance to their socioeconomic status and to worry about the position they occupy on the social ladder. We investigated through two experimental studies (N = 1117) the causal effect of economic inequality on status anxiety and whether expected upward and downward mobility mediates this effect. In Study 1, perceived economic inequality indirectly increased status anxiety through lesser expected upward mobility. In Study 2, perceived economic inequality decreased both expected upward and downward mobility, with opposite indirect effects on status anxiety. This suggests that the relationship between inequality and status anxiety is not straightforward, and could implicate the presence of multiple processes working at the same time-whereas lower expected downward mobility could suppress the effect of inequality, lower expected upward mobility could exacerbate it.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Melita
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.,Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Center (CIMCYC), Granada, Spain
| | - Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.,Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Center (CIMCYC), Granada, Spain
| | - Guillermo B Willis
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.,Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Center (CIMCYC), Granada, Spain
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Peters K, Jetten J. How living in economically unequal societies shapes our minds and our social lives. Br J Psychol 2023; 114:515-531. [PMID: 36708128 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
In recent decades, the economies of many countries have produced increasingly unequal outcomes for the rich and poor. This economic trend has attracted interest from members of the media, public and political classes as well as researchers who are interested in its societal implications. While this research has traditionally been the purview of economists and sociologists, there has been a burgeoning growth in research that has sought to understand the psychology of economic inequality. In this review, we summarize this work, focusing on two major themes: (1) how people perceive the scale of economic inequality and appraise its significance, and (2) how living in an economically unequal environment shapes people's social lives. Together, this work affirms claims that economic inequality is 'the defining issue of our time' (Obama, 2013) with a great deal of destructive potential. We identify important questions that await further research attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kim Peters
- University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.,University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jolanda Jetten
- University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
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Moreno-Bella E, Willis GB, Quiroga-Garza A, Moya M. Economic inequality shapes the agency–communion content of gender stereotypes. GROUP PROCESSES & INTERGROUP RELATIONS 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/13684302221095338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Economic inequality is a main issue in current societies, and it affects people’s psychological processes. In this research, we propose that perceived economic inequality might affect how people perceive men and women. In two experiments carried out in Spain ( N = 170) and Mexico ( N = 215), we tested whether high (vs. low) economic inequality leads to changes in the perceived agency and communion of both men and women. Our findings suggest that when economic inequality is high (vs. low), the communal content in social perceptions of both men and women decreases. Specifically, under high (vs. low) inequality, the difference in agency and communion ascribed to a man becomes greater (i.e., men are perceived as even more agentic than communal), whereas this difference becomes smaller for women (i.e., women are still perceived as more communal than agentic, but this difference is smaller). We discuss these findings’ implications regarding the psychosocial effects of economic inequality.
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