A Disaggregation of the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Psychological Distress

In this paper data from eight epidemiologic surveys are used to estimate the relative importance of income, education, and occupational status in predicting the distress of people in the normal population. The results show several heretofore undocumented patterns. First, each aspect of SES is significantly associated with distress net of the others. Second, the relative importance varies with the sex and laborforce status of the person under consideration. Among men in the laborforce, income is the strongest predictor of distress. Among women in the labor force, education is the most important. Among homemakers, education is by far the most important aspect of SES for predicting distress. Several specifications and elaborations of these basic patterns are presented. Together these show that much more than a simple economic reality is involved in the SES-distress relationship. In a closing section, plausible interpretations and directions for future research are discussed.