Social status and the health of families: a model.
The aim of this study is to examine the association of family health and social status, taking the family as the unit of analysis. One particular dimension of social status, lifestyle incongruity, is examined as a predictor of family health, relative to other stressors and sociodemographic variables. Lifestyle incongruity refers to the degree to which style of life (measured by the accumulation of consumer goods and the adoption of specific leisure activities) exceeds economic status (as assessed by occupational class and educational credentials). Using the 1980 General Household Survey of the United Kingdom, it was found that lifestyle incongruity discriminated between households with and without chronically ill members, and was associated with a global rating of family health, controlling for a variety of factors. The logic of studying the health of families, and the implications of these results for future research are discussed.
Department of Behavioral and Community Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa 35487-0326.
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Dressler
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology