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Perceived Risk and Expected Benefits Impact Social Class Differences in Health Risk Behavior

Haught, Heather M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430067942

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Psychology.
People in lower social classes die younger and suffer a greater burden of disease than those in upper social classes. This pattern, referred to as the social gradient, is partly attributable to the fact that people in lower social classes engage in more health risk behavior. The current studies are the first to examine whether perceived risk and expected benefits mediate the relationship between social class and health risk behavior and if the nature of this relationship differs depending upon the category of health risk behavior – those that derive risk from action vs. inaction. In Study 1, adults recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk reported how frequently they engage in a variety of health risk behaviors, indicated their perceived risk and expected benefits for each health behavior, and provided socio-demographic information (e.g., social class indicators, sex, and race). Results revealed that people in lower social classes perceived health risk behaviors to be more risky and have fewer benefits than people in upper social classes. Additionally, perceived risk was a stronger predictor of inactive health risk behaviors whereas expected benefits was a stronger predictor of active health risk behaviors. In Study 2, we manipulated participants’ perceived social status by shifting the reference point that participants used to make subjective social status judgments and examined whether this manipulation affected perceived risk and expected benefits in a manner similar to that expected in Study 1. Results did not replicate those obtained in Study 1. These findings advance our understanding of the pathways by which social class affects health risk behavior and inform strategies aimed at reducing health risk behavior among lower social classes.
Jason Rose (Committee Chair)
Andrew Geers (Committee Member)
John Jasper (Committee Member)
John Elhai (Committee Member)
Deborah Boardly (Committee Member)
73 p.
Psychology; Public Health
Social class; Status; Health Behavior; Health; Risk

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Haught, H. M. (2015). Perceived Risk and Expected Benefits Impact Social Class Differences in Health Risk Behavior [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430067942

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Haught, Heather. Perceived Risk and Expected Benefits Impact Social Class Differences in Health Risk Behavior. 2015. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430067942.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Haught, Heather. "Perceived Risk and Expected Benefits Impact Social Class Differences in Health Risk Behavior." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1430067942

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1430067942
445
© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Perceived Risk and Expected Benefits Impact Social Class Differences in Health Risk Behavior by Heather M Haught is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.