Subjective Social Status and Psychological Distress in Mothers of Young Children

Abstract

Introduction Perceptions of social standing have increasingly well-documented relationships with health. Higher subjective social status (SSS) is associated with better psychological well-being among women, and mothers of newborns. The relationship between SSS and psychological distress among mothers of young children, however, is largely unknown. SSS may provide insight into aspects of maternal functioning that are relevant to parenting capacity, as well as insight into future health; in addition, SSS is brief, and may be perceived as less intrusive than other measures of socioeconomic status or mental health. We evaluated the relationship between SSS and psychological distress among mothers of 5-year-old children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Methods 162 mothers of 5-year old children, who participated in a study of child self-regulation, completed surveys that assessed sociodemographics, mental health, and perceived social support. The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status used pictures of 10-rung ladders to assess respondents’ social position in relation to the US (SES ladder) and their community (community ladder). Quantile regression models were used to assess the relationship between maternal psychological distress (perceived social support, depressive symptoms, anxiety) and the ladders (individually and together), adjusting for maternal age, race, education, and number of children. To examine whether the SSS-health relationships differed by race, the models were also stratified by race. Results Community ladder ranking was positively associated with social support (β=1.34, SE=0.33, p<.001), and negatively associated with depressive symptoms (β=−1.34, SE=0.52, p<.05). SES ladder ranking was positively associated with social support (β=1.17, SE=0.52, p<.05). Findings in the full sample were driven by more robust relationships between psychological distress and community SSS among Black/African-American mothers. Discussion The findings suggest that perceived social standing in one’s community is associated with maternal psychological well-being. Community SSS may be particularly influential for Black/African-American mothers’ well-being.

Social rank theory of depression: A systematic review of self-perceptions of social rank and their relationship with depressive symptoms and suicide risk

“…In terms of demographic characteristics, there was some indication that Black American participants yielded a larger r-value (r=-0.36) than other ethnic groups (e.g., Latinos, mean r=-0.14), while male samples had larger average r-values (mean r=-0.31) than female samples (mean r=-0.15), although the only non-significant correlations were in samples of females. Additionally, all three studies using regression analysis found a significant association between a measure of SSS and depressive symptoms; including in a low income sample (Hamad et al, 2008), and two female only samples (Lau et al, 2013 ;Michelson et al, 2016). Although, when analysing by ethnicity, Michelson et al (2016) found a significant association for just Black women on the SSS-community scale, suggesting that social status within the community may be pertinent for this group.…”

“…Additionally, all three studies using regression analysis found a significant association between a measure of SSS and depressive symptoms; including in a low income sample (Hamad et al, 2008), and two female only samples (Lau et al, 2013 ;Michelson et al, 2016). Although, when analysing by ethnicity, Michelson et al (2016) found a significant association for just Black women on the SSS-community scale, suggesting that social status within the community may be pertinent for this group. Perceiving oneself to be higher on the SSS ladder was consistently associated with lower prevalence of depressive symptoms (e.g., Adler et al, 2008), with the relationship replicated across different samples (e.g., older adult, pregnant women), SSS contexts (majority used SSS-society scale) and even an experimental manipulation inducing lower SSS increased prevalence of depressive cognitions (Schubert et al, 2016).…”

“…In addition, women only samples consistently found a significant association over and above objective measures of social position (Dennis et al, 2012;Dolbier et al, 2013;Michelson et al, 2016). There was some indication this was more pronounced within the SSS-community context (Michelson et al, 2016), although a prospective study indicated that SSS-USA predicted post-partum depression at 6 months (Dolbier et al, 2013). Overall, the relationship between SSS and depressive symptoms held for both men and women, although indicated some variability across studies.…”

“…However, in a higher quality study the effect size appeared larger for men, as men lower on the SSS ladder were 1.62 times more likely to experience a depressive episode compared to 1.33 times for women (Hoebel et al, 2017), therefore there is some variability by gender. In addition, women only samples consistently found a significant association over and above objective measures of social position (Dennis et al, 2012;Dolbier et al, 2013;Michelson et al, 2016). There was some indication this was more pronounced within the SSS-community context (Michelson et al, 2016), although a prospective study indicated that SSS-USA predicted post-partum depression at 6 months (Dolbier et al, 2013).…”

The role of formal support in the lives of children of mothers with intellectual disability

“…Social support has been shown to play a critical role in positive parenting practices (Andresen & Telleen, ), in early childhood health and development (Kendrick et al., ; Maas, Vreeswijk, & van Bakel, ; Poobalan et al., ), in health (Cohen, Gottlieb, & Underwood, ; Holt‐Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, ), and as a buffer to the psychological impact of stress (Michelson, Riis, & Johnson, ). Social support acts as a mechanism through which “coping, esteem, belonging and competence” (Gottleib, , p 198) are fostered in individuals.…”