Seeing Class in Ladders: An Integrated Approach to Subjective Status and Health Inequality

Subjective social status, or one’s perceived rank within society, predicts individual health, often matching objective socioeconomic status (SES) indicators such as education or income in this capacity. While rank- or ladder-based measurement of subjective status is typical, subjective social class identification (e.g., seeing oneself as “working class” or “middle class”) remains a relatively neglected approach. Drawing on two recent national datasets and several measures of subjective status, I find that subjective class identification partly explains links between objective SES and subjective ladder scores. Adjusted distributions of ladder scores differ strikingly by subjective social class, with peaks and troughs highly dependent on class identity and ladder question wording. Crucially, subjective class and ladder systems both contribute to predicting self-rated health, net of each other and at similar, substantial levels. In sum, Americans significantly associate ladders with class. Thus, a sole emphasis on ladder-based approaches misses the categorical and cultural construction of subjective status, limiting our insight into health inequality.

On Adjectival Attributives Blood, Direct, Peaceful as Components of Archaic Nominations of Friends

The article discusses the changes in collocability of the word friend over time. It notes that the works by A.S. Pushkin contain the forms, unexpected for the perception of the native speakers of the modern Russian language: blood friends, direct friend, peaceful friends. The analysis of the specified attributive combinations is carried out applying definitional, contextual, linguocultural analysis methods. The text material from the National Corpus of the Russian language is used. It is proved that the expression "blood friends" could denote "people connected by strong friendship" and "people of the same class". Physical kinship criterion has been proved to serve as a basis for cognitive understanding of spiritual intimacy and social class identification. However, the connection between primary and secondary semantics is not so direct here; it is mediated by the cultural layer – the custom of twinning, a form of artificial relationship noted among many peoples. Most examples of the usage of the phrase "direct friend" mean 'express your opinion to someone honestly, directly'. The expression "peaceful friends" is interpreted as based on a doubling of the meaning 'in a relationship of agreement'. The research results can be used in compiling dictionaries of the Russian language, and also in teaching linguistic disciplines.

What Dominates the Female Class Identification? Evidence From China

In advocating gender equality today, we should not only pay attention to women's social status but also call for the women's psychological identification of class equality. What dominates female class identification? To answer this question, based on the data of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2015, this study constructs a female class identity framework from five aspects: the mother's intergenerational influence, female personal characteristics, lifestyle, gender consciousness, and spouse status. In this study, the ordered logit model is used to empirically analyze the impact of various factors on female class identification, and the results show the following: (1) gender consciousness has a significant impact on female class identification. (2) Lifestyle has a significant impact on the situation of having a spouse. (3) Spouse status has a significant positive effect on female class identification. But (4) the mother's intergenerational influence has no effect on female class identification. Therefore, this paper suggests that we should improve laws and regulations to protect women's normal rights, encourage women to establish an independent and self-improvement character, and enhance the class consciousness of women, especially rural women, in order to achieve the overall improvement of female class and psychological identification.