Does Subjective Social Status Predict Self-Rated Health in Chinese Adults and Why?

Hong Zou, Qianqian Xiong and Hongwei Xu ()
Additional contact information
Hong Zou: Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
Qianqian Xiong: Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
Hongwei Xu: Queens College

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2020, vol. 152, issue 2, No 2, 443-471

Abstract: Abstract A positive relationship between subjective social status (SSS) and health has been documented in many countries, however, many studies rely on non-representative, cross-sectional samples. Potential mechanisms underlying the association between SSS and health have been proposed but empirical investigation remains scarce. Capitalizing on nationally representative data from the 2010–2016 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study examines the longitudinal association between SSS and self-rated health in Chinese adults 20–70 years old. Estimates from lagged dependent variable models confirm a linear relationship between current SSS and self-rated health two years later over a 6-year follow-up period, after adjusting for education, occupation, income, and other demographic controls. This relationship remains robust after adjusting for additional indicators of objective socioeconomic status (SES) including household wealth, education of the spouse, parental literacy, and political capital. Mediation analysis shows that a large proportion (about 60%) of this association can be explained by such psychosocial factors as future prospects, life satisfaction, and mental illness. For Chinese adults, SSS is an important predictor of health not because it is a comprehensive measure of multidimensional SES, but because of a salient psychosocial pathway.

Keywords: Psychosocial pathway; Self-rated health; Subjective social status; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02445-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:soinre:v:152:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02445-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02445-1

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().