Subjective social status: construct validity and associations with psychosocial vulnerability and self-rated health.
BACKGROUND
Subjective social status (SSS) predicts health outcomes independently of traditional, objective indicators of socioeconomic status (SES). However, the potential confounding and mediating effects of negative affect and similar psychosocial risk and resilience factors have not been adequately addressed through formal studies of convergent and discriminant validity of SSS measures.


OBJECTIVE
The current study provides such a test of construct validity and subsequently examines whether psychosocial factors mediate the relationship between SSS and self-rated health.


METHODS
We examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the MacArthur scales of SSS relative to measures of psychosocial risk and resilience (i.e., neuroticism, depressive symptoms, optimism, and marital quality) as well as SES (i.e., income) in 300 middle-aged and older married US couples. We also tested a factor of psychosocial vulnerability as a mediator of the relationship between SSS and self-rated health.


RESULTS
Findings indicated clear convergent and discriminant validity of the MacArthur scales. Further, controlling age and income, both the US and community measures of SSS predicted psychosocial factors for men, however, only the community measure was independently predictive for women. Psychosocial vulnerability significantly mediated the pathway between SSS and self-rated health for men and women after controlling age and income.


CONCLUSIONS
These results provide strong support for the construct validity of the MacArthur scales and provide additional evidence of the role of psychosocial risk and resilience factors as mediators of the effects of SSS on health.
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. jenny.cundiff@psych.utah.edu
Jenny M
JM
Cundiff
Timothy W
TW
Smith
Bert N
BN
Uchino
Cynthia A
CA
Berg
D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class