DOES LOWER SUBJECTIVE SOCIAL STATUS YIELD RISKIER BIOMARKER PROFILES?

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (06) ◽  
pp. 746-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
OMER GERSTEN ◽  
PAOLA S. TIMIRAS ◽  
W. THOMAS BOYCE

SummaryBoth objective and, more recently, subjective measures of low social status have been linked to poor health outcomes. It is unclear, however, through which precise physiological mechanisms such standing may influence health, although it has been proposed that those of lower status may have biomarker profiles that are more dysregulated (and hence pose a greater risk for poorer health). The main objective of this study was to investigate whether lower subjective social standing is associated with riskier neuroendocrine biomarker profiles. Data were from the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS), a nationally representative survey of Taiwanese men and women (ages 54–91) conducted in Taiwan in 2000. Five neuroendocrine markers (cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine) were analysed both separately and collectively in an index termed neuroendocrine allostatic load (NAL) in relation to status – both self-reported and as measured through objective socioeconomic status (SES) indicators. For the biomarker DHEAS, some connection was found between its levels and the measures of status, but for the other markers and the NAL index almost no connection was found. The overall negative finding of this paper would be further supported with more and different measures of neuroendocrine system function and a reordering of the subjective social status questions in the survey such that the one probing about status in the community (that has no prompt) was asked before the one probing about status in all of Taiwan (which has a SES prompt).

Virittäjä ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 125 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildikó Vecsernyés

Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan, kuinka Suomen ja Unkarin pääministereitä puhutellaan Facebookissa. Tutkimuksen kohteena on se, mitä puhuttelukeinoja kommentoijat käyttävät kahdessa eri tarkoituksessa: toisaalta sympatian tai samaa mieltä olemisen, toisaalta erimielisyyden tai kritiikin ilmaisemisessa. Kahden sukukielen, suomen ja unkarin, puhuttelukeinot ovat samankaltaisia, mutta niiden käytössä on huomattavia eroja esimerkiksi sinuttelun ja teitittelyn yleisyydessä. Aineistona on viiteen Suomen pääministeri Juha Sipilän ja yhdeksään Unkarin pääministeri Viktor Orbánin vuosina 2015–2017 kirjoittamaan Facebook-päivitykseen tulleita kommentteja. Tarkastelun kohteena on 189 suomenkielistä ja 191 unkarinkielistä puhuttelumuotoa sisältävää kommenttia. Kommentit on jaettu myötäileviin ja vastustaviin ja näitä kahta kommenttityyppiä tarkastellaan kvantitatiivisesti ja kvalitatiivisesti pyrkimyksenä selvittää, mitä eroja puhuttelumuodon valinnassa ilmenee. Tutkimuksen teoreettis-metodisena taustana on aiempi sosiopragmaattinen puhuttelututkimus. Tutkimus osoittaa, että suomessa sinuttelu on hyvin yleistä riippumatta kommentin laadusta, mutta unkarissa sinuttelu on tavallisesti erimielisyyden osoittamisen keino. Tyypillinen kannustavan kommentin kirjoittaja käyttää suomessa sinuttelua ja pääministerin etunimeä, unkarissa teitittelyä, ön-teitittelypronominia ja pääministerin titteliä. Unkarin kielessä puhuteltavan yhteiskunnallinen asema vaikuttaakin puhuttelumuodon valintaan vahvemmin kuin suomessa. Toissijaisena strategiana unkarissa esiintyy jonkin verran myös uudenlaista kunnioittavaa sinuttelua yhdistettynä pääministerin etunimen käyttöön. Suomenkielisen aineiston vastustavissa kommenteissa esiintyy vielä todennäköisemmin sinuttelua kuin myötäilevissä kommenteissa sekä sinä-pronominia ja pääministerin sukunimeä, unkarinkielisessä aineistossa puolestaan sinuttelua, te ’sinä’ -pronominia ja pääministerin etu- tai sukunimeä tai nimenmuunnoksia. Toissijaisena strategiana joissain unkarin vastustavissa kommenteissa hyödynnetään ylikohteliaisuutta ja intentionaalista inkoherenssia. Aineiston perusteella näyttää siltä, että Facebook-kommenteissa käytetään suomessa etupäässä sinuttelua samoin kuin muissakin internetkeskusteluissa; kommentoijien mielipiteen ilmaisemisessa nominaalisilla puhuttelumuodoilla on tärkeä rooli. Unkarissa taas internetin yleisestä sinuttelupainotteisuudesta huolimatta tärkeimpänä keinona on sinuttelun ja teitittelyn vastakkainasettelu.   How to address a Prime Minister? Forms of address in comments to posts from the Prime Ministers of Finland and Hungary This article examines how the Prime Ministers of Finland and Hungary are addressed on Facebook. The aim of the study is to investigate which forms of address are used by commentators expressing, on the one hand, sympathy or consent, and on the other, disagreement or criticism. The repertoires of address forms of these two related languages, Finnish and Hungarian, bear many similarities, but the frequency and status of these forms are different. The data consists of comments on five posts written by Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipilä and on nine posts written by Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán between 2015–2017, comprising a total of 189 comments in Finnish and 191 comments in Hungarian, all containing forms of address. The comments have been divided into two types: comments showing sympathy and comments showing disagreement or criticism. These two comment types have been analysed quantitatively and qualitatively aiming to determine how the address practices employed differ from each other. The theoretical background of this study is based upon previously conducted socio­pragmatic address research. The article shows that the use of T forms  is very common in Finnish, regardless of the type of comment, but that in Hungarian, T forms are typically used as a linguistic tool to express disagreement. In Finnish, a typical commentator showing sympathy will use T forms and address the Prime Minister by his first name, whereas in Hungarian V forms, the V form pronoun ön, and the title ‘Prime Minister’ are favoured. The social status of the addressee has a stronger effect on the choice of address forms in Hungarian than it does in Finnish. However, some Hungarian comments include a new, respectful type of T form used with the first name of the Prime Minister. In comments expressing disagreement in the Finnish data, writers favour T forms, especially T form pronouns, and the use of the Prime Minister’s surname, whereas in the Hungarian data T forms, the T form pronoun te ‘you’ and the use of the Prime Minister’s first name, surname or nicknames are the most typical address practices. In conclusion, commentators in the Finnish data seem to use mostly T forms on Facebook, thus imitating address practices common in other online conversations. Instead of the T/V opposition, nominal forms of address play an important role in expressing the commentators’ attitude. In the Hungarian data, despite the prevalence of the T forms in online chats, the most important resource in expressing relation to the Prime Minister seems to be the contrast between the T and V forms, reflecting their significant status in Hungarian.


Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Cornman ◽  
Dana A. Glei ◽  
Noreen Goldman ◽  
Maxine Weinstein

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
pp. 911-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Cornman ◽  
Dana A. Glei ◽  
Noreen Goldman ◽  
Maxine Weinstein

This study examines whether frailty is associated with mortality independently of physiological dysregulation (PD) and, if so, which is the more accurate predictor of survival. Data come from the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study. We use Cox proportional hazard models to test the associations between PD, frailty, and 4- to 5-year survival. We use Harrell’s concordance index to compare predictive accuracy of the models. Both PD and frailty are significantly, positively, and independently correlated with mortality: Worse PD scores and being frail are associated with a higher risk of dying. The overall PD score is a more accurate predictor of survival than frailty, although model prediction improves when both measures are included. PD and frailty independently predict mortality, suggesting that the two measures may be capturing different aspects of the same construct and that both may be important for identifying individuals at risk for adverse health outcomes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J. McCabe

There are many reasons why Americans prefer homeownership to renting. Owning a home can serve as a vehicle for economic mobility or a marker of status attainment. Homeownership may deepen feelings of ontological security and enable families to move into more convenient neighborhoods. While previous research on race, ethnicity, and housing focuses on homeownership attainment, identifying structural barriers to explain persistent racial disparities, there has been little investigation of the reasons why Americans prefer to own their own homes. Drawing on the National Housing Survey, a nationally representative survey of American adults, I ask how these reasons vary by race and ethnicity. I report that African Americans and Latinos are more likely than whites to identify the social status of ownership and the importance of building wealth as reasons to buy a home. While African Americans are also more likely to pursue homeownership as a way to improve their housing quality, they are less likely to view ownership as a tool for accessing more convenient neighborhoods. As a contribution to research on racial stratification in homeownership, my findings push beyond existing studies of revealed preferences to explain why buying a home endures as such an important goal for many Americans. African Americans and Latinos are more deeply invested in the social status of homeownership, the importance of building wealth, and the promise of moving into a nicer home when they pursue ownership opportunities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer C Cornman ◽  
Dana A Glei ◽  
Noreen Goldman ◽  
Ming-Cheng Chang ◽  
Hui-Sheng Lin ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (14) ◽  
pp. 1923-1928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley M Geiger ◽  
Clemens Kirschbaum ◽  
Jutta M Wolf

Inconsistent associations between health and measures of subjective social status compared to one’s community suggest that how people define community may matter. This study broke down community into status among neighborhood and friends/family to assess the impact of each domain on chronic stress in individuals differing in socioeconomic status (18 employed and 18 unemployed individuals). The findings suggest that for ratings of subjective social status, the social and physical proximity of the reference group matters. Specifically, neighborhood status was affected by unemployment, while friends/family status was associated with perceived stress, emphasizing the importance of the comparison group in assessing subjective status.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-574
Author(s):  
Yang Zhou

Subjective social status is an individual's perception of his/her position in the social stratum, and it shapes social inequality in a perceived way. By using the China Family Panel Studies and employing growth curve modeling strategies, this article examines the subjective social status trajectories of Chinese people between 2010 and 2018 and how these trajectories are shaped by objective social status. The empirical findings show that the distribution of subjective social status in each wave (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018) presents a middle-class identification, which means that the majority of people tend to position their subjective social status at the middle level, while the overall trend in average subjective social status has increased over time. The results of trajectory analysis show that different objective socioeconomic status indicators have different effects on the baseline value and rate of growth in subjective social status, which suggests that the trajectories of subjective social status are influenced by multiple determinants in China. While education, income and political capital reduce the gaps between the classes in subjective social status over time, wealth and employment status enlarge these gaps and thus enhance subjective social inequality. This article highlights the gradient effect that wealth has on the dynamics of subjective social status and helps us to better understand subjective social stratification in contemporary China.


2021 ◽  
pp. 5101-5112
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Cornman ◽  
Dana A. Glei ◽  
Noreen Goldman ◽  
Maxine Weinstein

Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 141 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda C McClain ◽  
Linda Gallo ◽  
Carmen R Isasi ◽  
Robert Kaplan ◽  
Michelle I Cardel ◽  
...  

Introduction: Subjective social status (SSS) is inversely related to allostatic load (AL) markers, but little is known in Hispanics/Latinos. We assessed the hypotheses that SSS would be inversely associated with total AL and subsystem scores, regardless of objective socioeconomic status (OSS). Methods: Data were from baseline of the HCHS/SOL (n = 12,722, aged 18-74y). We assessed SSS using a 10-step ladder. Participants identified on which step they stood in relation to other people in the U.S. Higher scores indicated higher SSS (range: 1-10). Participants self-reported OSS as household income, educational attainment, and employment status. AL was comprised of 16 physiological markers from the parasympathetic (n=2; heart rate variability), inflammation (n=2; C-reactive protein, white blood cell), metabolic (anthropometrics, lipids, glucose, insulin resistance; n=8), and cardiopulmonary (blood and pulse pressures, resting heart rate, lung function; n=4) subsystems. Each marker was assigned a score of 1 if the value exceeded clinical cut-offs (or high-risk quartiles) or the participant reported taking medication to alter the marker. Otherwise, the marker was assigned a score of 0. Scores were summed across the 16 markers to create an AL score (0-16), with higher scores indicating higher AL. Scores were then dichotomized as high (vs. low) if scores were ≥ AL and subsystem medians. Multivariate-adjusted, survey-weighted linear and logistic regression models tested the association of SSS with AL and subsystem scores. Results: Sample means (95% CI) for SSS and AL were 4.4 (4.3-4.5) and 4.2 (4.1-4.3), respectively. A one-step increase on the SSS ladder was associated with lower AL ((β(SE): -0.1(0.02), p=0.003) and metabolic system (-0.04(0.01), p=0.001) scores. After adjusting for OSS, the association between SSS and AL was attenuated (-0.03(0.02), p=0.09), but remained significant for metabolic system scores (-0.03(0.01), p=0.01). When modeling dichotomized AL, a one-step increase was associated with lower odds of high AL (Odds Ratio (OR); 95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 0.94 (0.91-0.98), p=0.001), high parasympathetic system (0.96 (0.93-1.00), p=0.03), and high metabolic system (0.95 (0.92-0.98)) scores. After adjusting for OSS, higher SSS remained associated with lower odds of high AL (0.95 (0.92-0.99), p=0.01) and high metabolic system (0.96 (0.92-0.99), p=0.01) scores, but the association between SSS and lower parasympathetic subsystem scores was attenuated (0.97 (0.94-1.00), p=0.08). SSS was not associated with inflammation or cardiopulmonary subsystems. Conclusions: Among Hispanics/Latinos living in the U.S, OSS attenuated the relationship between SSS and AL. SSS may be influencing AL through the metabolic system, and could provide unique psychological and biobehavioral targets for reducing metabolic risk disparities among Hispanics/Latinos living in the U.S.


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