The company you keep
Is socialising with higher-status people bad for mental health
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2249282 |
|---|---|
| Authors | M A Lee (0000-0002-5551-9745, Department of Sociology Chung‐Ang University Seoul South Korea, corresponding author), Ichiro Kawachi (0000-0003-3579-4456, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston USA) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 1206-1226 |
| Publication date | 2017-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9566.12580 |
| PMID | 28543619 |
| OpenAlex | W2620454787 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 44 |
Socialising with higher-status individuals can be hypothesised to exert opposing influences on the mental health of the ego. On the one hand, socialising with higher-status alters might enable individuals to access valuable resources. On the other hand, status-discrepant friendships could be detrimental to mental health by engendering feelings of unfairness. We sought to examine the impact of status-discrepant social relationships on depressive symptoms in the 2012 Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), a nationally representative sample. We show that socialising with higher-status people is positively associated with depressive symptoms. There is no significant difference between those socialising with equivalent-status or with lower-status alters. Perceived unfairness also increase depressive symptoms. Respondents socialising with higher-status alters tend to report greater depressive symptoms as their perceived unfairness increases. Gender-stratified analyses reveal that the detrimental impact of status-discrepant relationships are observed for men only, not for women. These findings suggest that socialising with higher-status people can be a net detriment for mental wellbeing by increasing stress/frustration or decreasing psychological resources such as self-esteem, and that these effects are more pronounced for individuals who perceive that society is unfair. This pattern appears stronger for men, which might be associated with gender roles internalised through gender socialisation processes
Anxiety · Depressive symptoms · Developmental psychology · Feeling · Mental health · Psychiatry · Social status · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Clinical Psychology · Health disparities and outcomes · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,15 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |