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What if I had not fallen from grace? Psychological distress and the gap between factual and counterfactual subjective social status
Author(s) -
Euteneuer Frank,
Schaefer Sarina J.,
Neubert Marie,
Rief Winfried,
Suessenbach Philipp
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
stress and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1532-2998
pISSN - 1532-3005
DOI - 10.1002/smi.2892
Subject(s) - counterfactual thinking , psychology , distress , psychological distress , depression (economics) , social psychology , social stress , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , mental health , psychiatry , economics , macroeconomics
The aim of this work was to test the hypothesis that the discrepancy between factual and counterfactual subjective social status (DCS) relates to psychological distress beyond the effect of current (i.e., factual) subjective and objective social status. Participants were 124 single mothers (Study 1) and 310 persons who have become unemployed (Study 2). In both samples, higher DCS was related to more severe symptoms of stress and depression beyond the effect of current subjective and objective social status. Upward counterfactual thinking might be an additional psychological factor in the relationship between social inequality and health in socially deprived individuals.