Department of Psychology, University of Bologna (Italy), Piazza Aldo Moro, 90, 47521 Cesena, FC, Italy.
J Affect Disord. 2024 Dec 1;366:16-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.169. Epub 2024 Aug 26.
Social drift/selection (i.e., mental health symptoms cause low economic status) and social causation theories (i.e., low economic status causes mental health symptoms) specify reciprocal relationships between economic status and mental health. Little is known regarding the disaggregation of within-person and between-person effects in the relationship between economic status and mental health in the long run. The current study sought to examine the reciprocal relationships between economic status and mental health over 20 years of adulthood, disaggregating within-person and between-person effects.
Data were from three waves (7108 participants) of the Midlife Development in the United States study. Participants reported information about objective and subjective measures of economic status as well as a wide range of indicators of mental health on the positive dimension, including subjective, social, and psychological well-being, and on the negative side, depression, anxiety, panic attack, anhedonia, somatic amplification, alcohol abuse, and negative affect. Cross-lagged panel models were estimated.
At between-person levels, both social drift/selection and social causation hypotheses were confirmed when considering subjective measures of economic status. When using objective measures of economic status (i.e., income), the results showed decreased support for social drift/selection and social causation hypotheses. At within-person levels, social drift/selection and social causation hypotheses were generally not supported, with some notable exceptions.
Restriction of the sample to one country limits the generalizability of the findings.
Social causation and social drift/selection processes act simultaneously mainly at a population level, but much less when considering individual changes. Policy and programs should be targeted at addressing inequality in income and mental health within a nation or a community.
社会漂移/选择（即心理健康症状导致经济地位低下）和社会因果关系理论（即经济地位低下导致心理健康症状）指定了经济地位和心理健康之间的相互关系。关于经济地位和心理健康之间的长期关系中，个人内和个人间效应的细分，人们知之甚少。本研究旨在通过分解经济地位和心理健康之间的个人内和个人间效应，来检验经济地位和心理健康之间的互惠关系。
数据来自美国中年发展研究的三个波次（7108 名参与者）。参与者报告了关于经济地位的客观和主观指标的信息，以及关于心理健康的多个指标，包括主观、社会和心理幸福感，以及负面方面的抑郁、焦虑、惊恐发作、快感缺失、躯体放大、酒精滥用和消极情绪。使用交叉滞后面板模型进行估计。
在个体间水平上，当考虑主观经济地位衡量标准时，社会漂移/选择和社会因果关系假设均得到证实。当使用客观经济地位衡量标准（即收入）时，结果显示对社会漂移/选择和社会因果关系假设的支持减少。在个体内水平上，社会漂移/选择和社会因果关系假设通常没有得到支持，但也有一些例外。
将样本限制在一个国家限制了研究结果的普遍性。
社会因果关系和社会漂移/选择过程主要在人群水平上同时起作用，但在考虑个体变化时作用较小。政策和计划应针对解决一个国家或社区内的收入和心理健康不平等问题。
