Subjective social status and stress responsivity in late adolescence

Abstract

Subjective social status (SSS) reflects one's perception of one's standing within society. SSS has been linked with health outcomes, over and above socioeconomic status, and is thought to influence health in part by shaping stress responsivity. To test this, the present study examined the links between SSS and psychological, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and cardiovascular responsivity in a sample of 87 ethnically diverse late adolescents (M age = 18.39 years). Participants rated their family's SSS while either in high school (n = 50) or one year afterward (n = 37). Participants completed the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST) and reported their fear during baseline and after task completion, provided six saliva samples throughout the task, and had their heart rate monitored continuously throughout the task. Multilevel models, with time points nested within participants, were conducted to assess reactivity and recovery for each outcome. Results indicated that lower SSS was associated with greater fear reactivity and faster rates of HPA axis reactivity and recovery to baseline. Regarding cardiovascular responses, no differences were observed regarding heart rate. Lower SSS predicted increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia during the stress task only among participants who rated their SSS while in high school; no association was observed for those who rated SSS after high school. Results suggest that perceptions of one's family's standing in society can shape responses to stress and potentially broader health.

A protective rung on the ladder? How past and current social status shaped changes in health during COVID-19

“…Feeling undervalued in society, or one’s immediate community, may lead those with lower SSS to become preoccupied with stressors (Chen et al, 2004). Perceiving chronic stress or threat can more frequently activate the psychological and physiological stress response ( Rahal, Chiang, Bower, et al, 2020 ), thereby widening the gap in health outcomes between people of low and high SSS.…”

“…Indeed, a scientific consensus suggests that SSS is linked with health—even after statistically netting out traditional measures of socioeconomic status ( Cundiff & Matthews, 2017 ; Demakakos, Nazroo, Breeze, & Marmot, 2008 ; Nobles, Weintraub, & Adler, 2013 ; Präg, Mills, & Wittek, 2016 ; Singh-Manoux, Marmot, & Adler, 2005 ). Perceptions of one’s placement in the broader socioeconomic hierarchy may evoke physiological stress responses by degrading psychological resources such as self-esteem ( Rahal, Chiang, Bower, et al, 2020 ) and invoking inflammatory responses to perceived threat of inferiority ( Kuhlman, Chiang, Horn, & Bower, 2017 ). Relatedly, Eisenberger (2015) argues that painful feelings after social rejection or exclusion—in other words, feelings of inferiority—rely on some of the same neural regions that process physical pain.…”

Subjective social status is an important determinant of perceived stress among adolescents: a cross-sectional study

“…Recently, findings in a study by Rahal et al suggest that SSS in society is linked with differences in stress responsivity in late adolescence [21].…”

Representaciones del estatus social en estudiantes de último año de educación secundaria en un colegio privado de Lima Metropolitana

“…La escuela, por su parte, es un espacio de socialización cuyo rol es protagónico en la vida de los alumnos. Diversos estudios han hallado relaciones positivas entre el estatus social alto y la salud (Mattan et al, 2017;Sweeting y Hunt, 2014), y el estatus familiar bajo con estrés y síntomas asociados a problemas de salud física (Rahal et al, 2019;Sweeting y Hunt, 2014) en adolescentes. En este sentido, el estatus tiene un impacto social, psicológico y fisiológico en este grupo.…”