[Social self-positioning as indicator of socioeconomic status].
OBJECTIVE
Self-perceived class results from directly questioning subjects about his or her social class. The aim of this investigation was to analyse self-perceived class in relation to other indicator variables of socioeconomic level.


METHODS
Data from the 1994 Catalan Health Interview Survey, a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of the non-institutionalised population of Catalonia was used. We conducted a discriminant analysis to compute the degree of right classification when different socioeconomic variables potentially related to self-perceived class were considered. All subjects who directly answered the questionnaire were included (N = 12,245). With the aim of obtaining the discriminant functions in a group of subjects and to validate it in another one, the subjects were divided into two random samples, containing approximately 75% and 25% of subjects (analysis sample, n = 9,248; and validation sample, n = 2,997).


RESULTS
The final function for men and women included level of education, social class (based in occupation) and equivalent income. This function correctly classified 40.9% of the subjects in the analysis sample and 39.2% in the validation sample. Two other functions were selected for men and women separately. In men, the function included level of education, professional category, and family income (39.2% of classification in analysis sample and 37.2% in validation sample). In women, the function (level of education, working status, and equivalent income) correctly classified 40.3% of women in analysis sample whereas the percentage was 38.9% in validation sample. The percentages of right classification were higher for the highest and lowest classes.


CONCLUSIONS
These results show the utility of a simple variable to self-position within the social scale. Self-perceived class is related to education, income, and working determinants.
Fernández
E
E
Institut Universitari de Salut Pública de Catalunya. efernandez@bell.ub.es
Alonso
R M
RM
Quer
A
A
Borrell
C
C
Benach
J
J
Alonso
J
J
Gómez
G
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D012923:Social Class; D013030:Spain