Psychological Perspectives on Pathways Linking Socioeconomic Status and Physical Health
By Karen A. Matthews, Linda C Gallo. Annual Review of Psychology, 2011
666 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Low socioeconomic status (SES) is a reliable correlate of poor physical health. Rather than treat SES as a covariate, health psychology has increasingly focused on the psychobiological pathways that inform understanding why SES is related to physical health. This review assesses the status of research that has examined stress and its associated distress, and social and personal resources as pathways. It highlights work on biomarkers and biological pathways related to SES that can serve as intermediate outcomes in future studies. Recent emphasis on the accumulation of psychobiological risks across the life course is summarized and represents an important direction for future research. Studies that test pathways from SES to candidate psychosocial pathways to health outcomes are few in number but promising. Future research should test integrated models rather than taking piecemeal approaches to evidence. Much work remains to be done, but the questions are of great health significance.
Subfields: General Health Professions, Health, Social Psychology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5d1a26d43d35e4d04f0d132686414de69acb9ed6
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In General Health Professions
- Gregory E. Miller
- E. Chen
- T. Williams
- Deirdre Bloome
- K. J. Parker
- Dean A. Shepherd
- Bruce Western
- Stéphane Côté
In Health
In Social Psychology
- T. Williams
- Dean A. Shepherd
- Gregory E. Miller
- Richard David Evans
- K. J. Parker
- Bruce Western
- Stéphane Côté
- E. Chen
Citations in the corpus
- Inequities in Health Care Services Caused by the Adoption of Digital Health Technologies: Scoping Review (2021, background): “Furthermore, SES (eg, education and income) [69] was also discussed.”
- Entrepreneurship responding to adversity: Equilibrating Adverse Events and Disequilibrating Persistent Adversity (2020, background): “…at the bottom of the wealth distribution suffer from persistent adversity, such as reduced access to healthcare (Sood et al., 2014), ineffective teaching and education (BattinPearson et al., 2000; White, 1982), and physical and psychological problems (for a review, see Matthews & Gallo, 2011).”
- Psychological Stress in Childhood and Susceptibility to the Chronic Diseases of Aging: Moving Towards a Model of Behavioral and Biological Mechanisms (2011, background): “…and biomedical sciences, there is mounting interest in the hypothesis that psychosocial stress in the early years of life has a lingering influence on physical health (Gluckman & Hanson, 2006; Matthews, 2005; Matthews & Gallo, 2011; Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002; Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009).”
- Economic Insecurity and Social Stratification (2012, background): “This focus necessarily neglects important comparative contributions (e.g., Burkhauser & Couch 2009, Osberg & Sharpe 2002) and research beyond stratification on, for example, the psychological dimensions of economic insecurity (Matthews & Gallo 2011, Warr 1987).”
- How social class shapes thoughts and actions in organizations (2011, background): “The Academy Award winning documentary Inside Job covers events that led up to the financial crisis of 2008–2009 (Marrs & Ferguson, 2010).”