Socioeconomic Status

Structure of SES

Unfortunately, the use of the term socioeconomic status in the psychological literature often connotes a [Page 434]unidimensional, homogeneous construct. For example, it is not uncommon for the psychological literature to claim that SES is associated with a given psychosocial outcome. However, the accumulated research evidence suggests that SES is a multidimensional construct with distinct but related components. The relation of any one component to an extraneous variable often differs both quantitatively and qualitatively from that of the other components. For example, existing research suggests that children's exposure to certain types of stress has a significant negative association with some components of SES (e.g., family assets and parental occupational status) but not with others (e.g., family income and parental education). Therefore, SES should not be conceptualized as a single indicator of societal prestige but as a collection of interrelated but independent components. Accordingly, greater accuracy is achieved by clearly referring to the relationship between a specific component (e.g., parental occupational status) and a given outcome whenever describing SES effects.

The components of SES are often categorized into three groups. The first group includes the financial resources available to any given individual (e.g., income). The second group represents the nonmaterial resources that an individual possesses, such as education. The final group incorporates an individual's social and interpersonal resources (e.g., social and family networks). However, certain important components of SES cannot be readily accommodated into this tripartite scheme. For example, occupational status—the culturally determined subjective value of an occupation—is an important component of SES that cannot be neatly incorporated into any of the three groups.

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