Perceived Social Status and Early Adolescents’ Responses to Negative Daily Events

The purpose of the current study is to enhance our understanding of the relationship between social status and stress among early adolescents by examining whether adolescents’ perceptions of status influence how they respond affectively to negative daily events. Thirty-five seventh grade students completed questionnaires on social status and family resources, and then participated in 1 week of experience sampling. During the experience sampling phase of the study, participants provided an average of approximately 22 assessments of events and mood in their natural daily contexts. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling to accommodate the structure of the repeated assessments in daily life and to model between-person differences in event-mood relationships. Controlling for gender and family affluence, students who perceived themselves as lower in social status at school reported a greater degree of sad and anxious mood following negative school and family events than students who perceived themselves as higher in status. Students’ perceptions of their families’ statuses in US society did not significantly moderate event-mood relationships, however there was evidence of a trend suggesting that youth who perceived their families as lower in status reported a greater degree of sad mood following family events than those who perceived their families as higher in social status.