The Impact of Social Status on Levels of Psychological Well-Being: A Dynamic, Developmental Approach.

Abstract

Our understanding regarding how social statuses interact with one another to impact psychological well-being is limited, and most available research typically ignores issues of development while focusing on the cross-section. In the aim of increasing our understanding on this matter, a developmental model was formulated – The Social Status/Vulnerable Period (SS/VP) model – that takes into account (1) when over the lifespan each social status typically impacts growth of well-being, (2) what proximal developmental changes underlie the timing of that impact, and (3) how distal factors moderate the impact of those proximal developmental changes. By exploring how race and sex status interact to impact psychological well-being across adolescence and early adulthood, the validity of the SS/VP model was examined. Using data from the Maryland Adolescent Growth in Context (MADICS) study (PI’s: J. Eccles & A. Sameroff) - a five-wave longitudinal study consisting of around 1,600 participants - a series of growth models and structural equation models were tested. During early adulthood, relative to European Americans, levels of depressive affect appear to be increasing among African Americans, and the differential growth across race was largely attributed to the differential impact of non-college attendance across the two races. Moreover, distal factors such as adolescent levels of social support, family income, and perceived discrimination all served to dampen this effect. In addition, the SS/VP model posits that two at-risk social statuses will compound (i.e. individuals with both at-risk statuses show especially low levels of psychological well-being) only if the two at-risk social statuses impact well-being during the same period of development. Consistent with the SS/VP model, findings suggest that the impact of European American and female status, which are both associated with deficits in psychological well-being during early adolescence, compound such that those individuals with both at-risk statuses show especially low levels of psychological well-being, and, this effect appears to manifest during early adolescence. Highlighting the need for a lifespan approach, it appears that the particular racial group at-risk for psychological well-being depends on the developmental period of focus. The implications of these findings for the SS/VP model and future directions for research are discussed.