Intragenerational social mobility and self-rated oral health in the british cohort study

Background Most studies on social mobility and oral health have focused on movement between generations (intergenerational mobility) rather than movement within an individual’s own lifetime (intragenerational mobility). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between intragenerational social mobility from early to middle adulthood and self-rated oral health. Methods This study used data from 6524 participants of the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study, an ongoing population-based birth cohort of individuals born in England, Scotland and Wales. Participants’ socioeconomic position was indicated by occupational social class at age 26 and 46 years (the first and latest adult waves, respectively). Self-rated oral health was measured at age 46 years. The association between social mobility and adult oral health was assessed using conventional regression models and diagonal reference models, adjusting for gender, ethnicity, country of residence and residence area. Results Over a fifth of participants (22.2%) reported poor self-rated oral health at age 46 years. In conventional regression analysis, the odds ratios for social mobility varied depending on whether they were adjusted for social class of origin or destination. In addition, all social trajectories had greater odds of reporting poor oral health than non-mobile adults in class I/II. In diagonal reference models, both upward (Odds Ratio 0.79; 95% CI 0.63–0.99) and downward mobility (0.90; 95% CI 0.71–1.13) were inversely associated with poor self-rated oral health. The origin weight was 0.48 (95% CI 0.33–0.63), suggesting that social class of origin was as important as social class of destination. Conclusion This longitudinal analysis showed that intragenerational social mobility from young to middle adulthood was associated with self-rated oral health, independent of previous and current social class.

Subjective status comparisons and depressive symptoms among migrants and refugees to Germany

Background Prior research has identified perceptions of relative social status to affect mental health. We investigated whether migrants to Germany who perceive that they would have a higher relative social status if they were still in their country of origin experience more depressive symptoms than those who perceive no such status discrepancy. Methods Cross-sectional data were derived from a random sample of residents in the Berlin-Brandenburg region with a Croatian, Polish, Romanian, Syrian and/or Turkish citizenship (n = 728). Participants’ perception of their relative social status in Germany was measured using the MacArthur Scale of subjective social status (SSS). An adapted version of this scale was used to assess respondents’ hypothetical SSS in their country of origin if they had not migrated. Depressive symptoms were measured with the eight-item depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire. Diagonal reference models were used to examine whether discrepancies between the two status ratings were associated with depressive symptom severity. Results Most respondents reported a higher (35.6%) or similar (49.0%) hypothetical SSS in their country of origin compared to their SSS in Germany. Respondents whose SSS in Germany was lower than their hypothetical SSS in their country of origin experienced the most severe depressive symptoms. In the diagonal reference models, this association remained statistically significant (p < 0.05), even after adjusting for objective socioeconomic position and other covariates. The pattern was similar for both refugees and non-refugees. Conclusions Our findings indicate that perceptions of having a lower social status in Germany than hypothetically in one’s country of origin are concomitant with poorer mental health among migrants. Prospective data are needed to address questions of causation and the direction of effects. Key messages Migrants who perceived that they would have a higher social status if they had not left their country of origin reported higher depressive symptoms than those with no such status discrepancy. This association persisted after adjusting for objective socioeconomic position in Germany.

Positional, mobility and reference effects: How does social class affect life satisfaction in Europe?

In this study, we analyse the effects of social class on life satisfaction and develop a theoretical framework that shows how social class affects life satisfaction through five pathways. Informed by this framework, we estimate the direct effects of class destination and class origin, the effect of own intergenerational class mobility as well as the effects of others’ class position and mobility (so-called reference effects). To do so, we utilize European Social Survey (ESS) waves 1 to 5 (2002-2010). We obtain information on life satisfaction as well as destination and origin class for about 100,000 respondents in 32 European countries. Our mobility analyses are performed with diagonal reference models, which allow for the consistent estimation of mobility effects. We find: (1) Class destination consistently and strongly structures life satisfaction across Europe. (2) Own class mobility positively impacts life satisfaction, particularly in Eastern Europe. (3) Other’s class mobility has a strong negative effect on life satisfaction. Especially the latter finding points to the hitherto neglected importance of reference effects when considering the impact of social class onlife satisfaction.