Subjective Social Status: Evaluation of a New Instrument

Noreen Goldman, Princeton University
Jennifer C. Cornman, Polisher Research Institute
Ming-Cheng Chang, Taiwan Provincial Institute of Family Planning

A recently developed instrument of subjective social position was designed to address limitations of earlier measures for examining social disparities in health. This measure was developed as part of a broader movement in the social sciences and epidemiology to consider not only absolute but also relative social position within a society, paying particular attention to the health consequences of relative deprivation. The principal objective of the present analysis is to evaluate the potential utility of this instrument for research on social inequalities in health. Our evaluation is based on an examination of the distribution and correlates of responses to the relevant questions in a recent survey in Taiwan, a comparison of these findings with those derived from earlier measures of subjective social status, and an examination of the association between this instrument, conventional indicators of socio-economic status (e.g. income, occupation and education) and several health outcomes.