Mediation analysis for associations of categorical variables: The role of education in social class mobility in Britain

We analyse levels and trends of intergenerational social class mobility among three post-war birth cohorts in Britain, and examine how much of the observed mobility or immobility in them could be accounted for by existing differences in educational attainment between people from different class backgrounds. We propose for this purpose a method which quantifies associations between categorical variables when we compare groups which differ only in the distribution of a mediating variable such as education. This is analogous to estimation of indirect effects in causal mediation analysis, but is here developed to define and estimate population associations of variables. We propose estimators for these associations, which depend only on fitted values from models for the mediator and outcome variables, and variance estimators for them. The analysis shows that the part that differences in education play in intergenerational class mobility is by no means so dominant as has been supposed, and that while it varies with gender and with particular mobility transitions, it shows no tendency to increase over time.

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A Detailed Examination of the Role of Education in Intergenerational Social-class Mobility

Social Science Information ◽

10.1177/0539018402041003004 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 407-438 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Herman G. van de Werfhorst

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Tertiary Education ◽

Detailed Examination ◽

Drop Out ◽

Social Classes ◽

Downward Mobility ◽

Class Mobility ◽

Fields Of Study

This article analyses the role of education, particularly fields of study, in intergenerational class mobility in the Netherlands. In highly educated societies, children of all social classes need to invest in education to avoid downward mobility. We argue that members of the various social classes aim primarily for class maintenance, and apply educational strategies to realize this aim. Children of manual working-class families tend to prefer technical fields of study, in order to reach at least their parents' social class or probably even higher. Children of the self-employed or of small employers need financial and commercial skills to be able to take over the business. Children from farming backgrounds benefit from agricultural training in getting to work on a farm themselves. These strategies equip them with valuable types of skills and knowledge, even if they drop out of school early. Children of service-class origins tend to opt for general types of training at secondary school, and prestigious fields like law and medicine in tertiary education. Empirical results of analyses on two Dutch nationally representative surveys (N = 1566 men) generally support these claims. Because of these rather conservative strategies, relatively low mobility rates are found, which impedes upward mobility of working-class children.

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Dalit Leadership, Collective Pride and Struggle for Social Change Among Educated Dalits: Contesting the Legitimacy of Social Class Mobility Approach

Contemporary Voice of Dalit ◽

10.1177/2455328x19898411 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 52-70

Author(s):

Chetan Sinha

Keyword(s):

Social Change ◽

Social Class ◽

Significant Role ◽

Political Identity ◽

Lower Caste ◽

Collective Movement ◽

Class Mobility ◽

Highly Educated

Dalit leaders have played a significant role in the lives of lower caste people. They have created a meaningful political identity for Dalits (oppressed) and inspired them in the collective movement for social change. This article critically explores three major theoretically interlinked and contested components, which are Dalit leadership, collective pride and social class mobility, and discusses the emergent categories. Participants in the present work are highly educated Dalits who take inspiration and pride from Ambedkar’s leadership and believe in the role of collective movement for social change.

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Making Education Count: The Effects of Ethnicity and Qualifications on Intergenerational Social Class Mobility

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1111/j.1467-954x.2007.00715.x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 485-508 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Lucinda Platt

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Social Class ◽

Ethnic Group ◽

Ethnic Groups ◽

Minority Groups ◽

Educational Achievement ◽

Growing Up ◽

Class Mobility ◽

Class Background

This paper examines the role of social class and ethnic group background in determining individuals’ social class destinations. It explores the extent to which these background factors are mediated by educational achievement, and the role of educational qualifications in enabling intergenerational class mobility. To do this, it uses the ONS Longitudinal Study. These data allow us to observe parents’ characteristics during childhood for a group of children of different ethnic groups growing up in England and Wales in the same period and who had reached adulthood by 2001. Results show that the influence of class background on these children's subsequent social class position varied with ethnicity: it was important for the majority, even after taking account of educational qualifications, but had a much smaller role to play for the minority groups. The minority groups made use of education to achieve upward mobility, but to greater effect for some groups than for others. Among those without educational qualifications, minority groups suffered an ‘ethnic penalty’ in relation to higher class outcomes; but for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, this penalty persisted at all levels of education. These findings challenge the notion that a more equal society can be achieved simply through promoting equality of opportunity through education.

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Social class and envy among Chinese undergraduates: Victim justice sensitivity as a mediator

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.9185 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

You-Juan Hong ◽

Rong-Mao Lin ◽

Rong Lian

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Social Hierarchy ◽

Scholarly Research ◽

Justice Sensitivity ◽

Lower Social Class ◽

Subjective Social Class ◽

The Relationship ◽

Chinese Undergraduates

We examined the relationship between social class and envy, and the role of victim justice sensitivity in this relationship among a group of 1,405 Chinese undergraduates. The students completed measures of subjective social class, victim justice sensitivity, and dispositional envy. The results show that a lower social class was significantly and negatively related to envy and victim justice sensitivity, whereas victim justice sensitivity was significantly and positively related to envy. As predicted, a lower social class was very closely correlated with envy. In addition, individuals with a lower (vs. higher) social class had a greater tendency toward victim justice sensitivity, which, in turn, increased their envy. Overall, our results advance scholarly research on the psychology of social hierarchy by clarifying the relationship between social class and the negative emotion of envy.

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Rape Appraisals: Class Mobility, Social Geography, and Sexual Morality Tales in Ghana, South Africa, and Rwanda

Journal of Black Psychology ◽

10.1177/00957984211008057 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 009579842110080

Author(s):

C. Shawn McGuffey

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

South African ◽

Social Geography ◽

Stressful Events ◽

Trauma Studies ◽

Sexual Morality ◽

Class Mobility ◽

Rape Survivors ◽

Interdisciplinary Scholarship

Interdisciplinary scholarship in violence and trauma studies suggest that a person’s interpretation of stressful events contours how the person will respond. It is through the two-part appraisal process that survivors determine how they will cope. This project utilizes an identity-based approach to demonstrate that survivors use group-based ideologies such as social class, geography, gender, sexuality, and, for some, race to appraise their accounts of violence, assess their coping strategies, and manage traumatic events. Using the cross-cultural accounts of 146 Black Ghanaian, South African, and Rwandan women rape survivors, the findings extend the appraisal approach by highlighting how survivors in this study utilized sexual morality tales to construct a variety of appraisal accounts to interpret their assaults and to justify their coping strategies. I call these appraisals opportunities, possibilities, limitations, and solidarities. These differing appraisals demonstrated that social milieu contours the psychological experience of violence and can engender both parallel and divergent interpretations across social class and cultural contexts. Last, the implications of these findings for comparative sexual assault studies, theories of traumatic coping, gender and development, and intersectionality are discussed.

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COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep: the roles of perceived stress and intolerance of uncertainty during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak

BMC Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/s12888-021-03310-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dan Wu ◽

Tingzhong Yang ◽

Daniel L. Hall ◽

Guihua Jiao ◽

Lixin Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Path Analysis ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Mediation Analysis ◽

Early Stage ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Self Report ◽

Poor Sleep ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic brings unprecedented uncertainty and stress. This study aimed to characterize general sleep status among Chinese residents during the early stage of the outbreak and to explore the network relationship among COVID-19 uncertainty, intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, and sleep status. Methods A cross-sectional correlational survey was conducted online. A total of 2534 Chinese residents were surveyed from 30 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions of China and regions abroad during the period from February 7 to 14, 2020, the third week of lockdown. Final valid data from 2215 participants were analyzed. Self-report measures assessed uncertainty about COVID-19, intolerance of uncertainty, perceived stress, and general sleep status. Serial mediation analysis using the bootstrapping method and path analysis were applied to test the mediation role of intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress in the relationship between uncertainty about COVID-19 and sleep status. Results The total score of sleep status was 4.82 (SD = 2.72). Age, place of residence, ethnicity, marital status, infection, and quarantine status were all significantly associated with general sleep status. Approximately half of participants (47.1%) reported going to bed after 12:00 am, 23.0% took 30 min or longer to fall asleep, and 30.3% slept a total of 7 h or less. Higher uncertainty about COVID-19 was significantly positively correlated with higher intolerance of uncertainty (r = 0.506, p < 0.001). The mediation analysis found a mediating role of perceived stress in the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and general sleep status (β = 0.015, 95%C.I. = 0.009–0.021). However, IU was not a significant mediator of the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep (β = 0.009, 95%C.I. = − 0.002–0.020). Moreover, results from the path analysis further showed uncertainty about COVID-19 had a weak direct effect on poor sleep (β = 0.043, p < 0.05); however, there was a robust indirect effect on poor sleep through intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress. Conclusions These findings suggest that intolerance of uncertainty and perceived stress are critical factors in the relationship between COVID-19 uncertainty and sleep outcomes. Results are discussed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and practical policy implications are also provided.

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Role of SES on the association between childhood parental death and adulthood suicidal ideation: a mediation analysis using longitudinal dataset in South Korea

BMC Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/s12888-021-03146-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jaehong Yoon ◽

Ja Young Kim ◽

Ji-Hwan Kim ◽

Seung-Sup Kim

Keyword(s):

Suicidal Ideation ◽

South Korea ◽

Mediation Analysis ◽

Household Income ◽

Parental Death ◽

Middle Adulthood ◽

Late Adulthood ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Direct Association

Abstract Background We sought to examine the association between childhood experience of parental death (CEPD) and adulthood suicidal ideation, and the mediating role of adulthood SES in the association. Methods We analyzed a nationally representative dataset of 8609 adults from the Korea Welfare Panel Study, which is a longitudinal cohort dataset in South Korea. CEPD was measured using a question: “During your childhood (0-17 years old), have you experienced the death of parents?” We classified responses of CEPD during 2006–2011 into ‘yes,’ and the others into ‘no.’ Suicidal ideation over the past year was assessed annually during 2012–2019. As a potential mediator, adulthood educational attainment and household income in 2011 were included in the analysis. Logistic regression was applied to examine the association of CEPD with adulthood suicidal ideation across age groups (early adulthood, 19–39 years old; middle adulthood, 40–59 years old; late adulthood, ≥60 years old), after excluding people who reported lifetime suicidal ideation in 2011. Causal mediation analysis using a parametric regression model was applied to examine the mediating role of adulthood SES in the association between CEPD and adulthood suicidal ideation. Results After adjusting for potential confounders including childhood SES, CEPD was significantly associated with adulthood suicidal ideation among the late adulthood group (OR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.13–1.81), while the association was not statistically significant among the early; and middle adulthood groups. In mediation analysis of adulthood household income, both indirect association (ORNIE: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.02–1.09) and direct association (ORNDE: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.09–1.73) were statistically significant among the late adulthood group. In the mediation analysis of adulthood education attainment among the late adulthood, only a direct association was statistically significant (ORNDE: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.14–1.80). Conclusions These results suggest that CEPD could be a risk factor for adulthood suicidal ideation. Furthermore, the findings imply that income security policy might be necessary to reduce suicide among the late adulthood group.

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