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Is Receiving Social Support Costly for Those Higher in Subjective Socioeconomic Status?

  • Special Issue: Salivary Bioscience
  • Published:
International Journal of Behavioral Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Although social support is generally thought to have positive consequences, this is not always the case. Receiving social support may threaten independence, which research has shown is more highly valued among those higher in socioeconomic status. As a result, support may be less strongly associated with positive outcomes for those higher in socioeconomic status (SES). Conversely, those lower in SES are more interdependent (Kraus, Piff, Mendoza‐Denton, Rheinschmidt, & Keltner, 2012; Stephens, Markus, & Phillips, 2014) and may, therefore, be less threatened when receiving social support. This study examined SES as a moderator of how daily received support (within and between persons) predicted both daily psychological stressor appraisals and diurnal cortisol.

Method

Healthy undergraduate students (N = 128) participated in a 3-day study. Participants completed one or more evening diaries the first day of the study and additional questionnaires upon awakening, throughout the day, and at bedtime during the following 2 days. Support was measured each evening and stressor appraisals and cortisol were measured throughout the day.

Results

As expected, for those who reported higher subjective SES, receiving more support than usual (within-person support) was associated with a flatter pattern of diurnal cortisol the next day. Although SES did not moderate the association of either within- or between-person support with stressor appraisals, the receipt of more support on average (between-person support) was associated with higher reported resources to cope.

Conclusion

The findings demonstrate that there may be physiological costs—but not psychological costs—associated with the receipt of support for those higher in socioeconomic status.

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Notes

  1. This experimental manipulation was tested as a covariate in all models.

  2. The number of evening diaries depended on when the laboratory session started. Sessions in the afternoon allowed for more evening diaries than evening laboratory sessions.

  3. Participants were asked to complete diaries and cortisol measurements at the same time—plus an additional saliva sample 30 minutes post-awakening; however, the exact time of cortisol measurements was not recorded. The timepoint (e.g., 2, 4, 6) was recorded and was used to match diary responses to cortisol samples. The time stamp on the diary was the time variable used for cortisol models.

  4. Tables are not included for non-significant findings but are available upon request.

  5. These findings were unchanged when subjective SES was not controlled for.

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Funding

Emily D. Hooker was supported by a University of California, Irvine President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship during the completion of this manuscript. This research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0720066; P.I. Sally S. Dickerson) and the Harry and Miriam Levinson Scholarship from the American Psychological Foundation and Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (Peggy M. Zoccola).

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Correspondence to Emily D. Hooker.

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Hooker, E.D., Campos, B., Hoffman, L. et al. Is Receiving Social Support Costly for Those Higher in Subjective Socioeconomic Status?. Int.J. Behav. Med. 27, 325–336 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-019-09836-w

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