Associations among socioeconomic status, perceived neighborhood control, perceived individual control, and self-reported health

✍ Scribed by Spencer Moore; Mark Daniel; Ulf Bockenholt; Lise Gauvin; Lucie Richard; Steven Stewart; Laurette Dubé

• Book ID: 102311810
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0090-4392
• DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20391

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that perceived control and a person's perceptions of their neighborhood environment may mediate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. This cross‐sectional study assessed whether perceptions of informal social control mediated the association between SES and self‐reported health, and if these two constructs represented distinct mechanisms linking SES with self‐reported health. The sample consisted of 869 adults residing in 300 census tracts in Montreal, Canada. Multilevel methods were used to assess the associations among self‐reported health, SES, perceived control, and perceived informal social control adjusting for sociodemographic variables. Perceived control (mediation estimate=−0.16, p<.001) and perceived informal social control (mediation estimate=−0.05, p<.05) partially mediated the association between SES and self‐reported health. Perceived control did not mediate the association of perceived informal social control with self‐reported health. Perceived informal social control may act alongside but distinct from perceived control as a mechanism linking SES to self‐reported health. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.