SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING by A THESIS IN ...

SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

by

JUDITH FOSTER CREAGAN, B.S.

A THESIS

IN

SOCIOLOGY

Sumbitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Approved

Accepted

May, 1979

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply grateful to Professor Yung-mei Tsai, my chairman,

for his patient guidance and assistance and to Professors Charles

R. Chandler, George D. Lowe and Marietta Morressey for their

invaluable criticisms as members of my committee. I would also

like to express my thanks to the personnel of the Texas Tech

Computer Center for their assistance, and the Secondary Analysis

Research Institute for providing the data.

11

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

LIST OF TABLES v

I. INTRODUCTION 1

Review of Literature 2

The Effects of Social Mobility on Individuals:

Emotional Maladjustment, Mental Illness and Suicide 7

Hypotheses of the Study 12

Variables controlled in the Analysis 13

Additional Considerations 15

II. METHODS 17

The Sample 17

Operationalization of the Main Variables 18

Operationalization of the Control Variables . . . . 19

Statistical Analysis 21

III. FINDINGS 22

General Mobility and Mental Well-Being 23

Upward Mobility, Downward Mobility and Mental

Well-Being 24

Social Mobility and Meantal Well-Being: A Multiple

Regression Analysis 25

Additional Analyses 31

Age Specific Mobility and Mental Well-Being . . . 31

IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 34

111

ENDNOTES ^^

REFERENCES ^2

APPENDIX ,-, 47

IV

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: MENTAL WELL-BEING: A RESULT OF THE FACTOR

ANALYSIS 48

TABLE 2: SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

SIMPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS -49

TABLE 3: UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY, DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY

AND MENTAL WELL-BEING SIMPLE CORRELATION

COEFFICIENTS 50

TABLE 4: GENERAL SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS 51


A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR THE CASE OF

UPPER CLASS OF DESTINATION 52

TABLE 6: GENERAL SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL ^LL-BEING


MIDDLE CLASS OF DESTINATION 53



LOWER CLASS OF DESTINATION 54

TABLE 8: GENERAL UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL

WELL-BEING A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS 55

TABLE 9: UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING


UPPER CLASS OF DESTINATION 56







TABLE 12: GENERAL DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL

WELL-BEING A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS 59

TABLE 13: DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL \^LL-BEING



TABLE 14: DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING



TABLE 15: SIMPLE CORRELATION BETT«JEEN GENERAL SOCIAL MOBILITY

AND MENTAL WELL-BEING AN AGE SPECIFIC ANALYSIS . . 62

TABLE 16: AGE SPECIFIC SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL

WELL-BEING A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS:

GENERAL MOBILITY 63

TABLE 17: SIMPLE CORRELATION BETWEEN AGE SPECIFIC SOCIAL

MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING: UPWARD MOBILITY 64


WELL-BEING A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

UPWARD MOBILITY 65

VI

TABLE 19: SIMPLE CORRELATION BETWEEN AGE SPECIFIC SOCIAL

MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING:

DOWNWARD MOBILITY 66


WELL-BEING A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS:

DOWNWARD MOBILITY 67

TABLE 21: SUMMARY TABLE OF FINDINGS 68

Vll

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Social mobility, the movement of individuals within the strati

fication system of a society, is one of the most important character

istics of modern industrial societies. As a large number of societies

began to industrialize, the interest in investigating the causes,

patterns and consequences of social mobility increased. Within these

societies, particularly within American society, there appears to

be a consensus that personal social advancement, especially advance

ment within the occupational structure, is beneficial. The "rags to

riches" theme is one of the mose pervasive in American society. It

is the subject of countless novels, short stories, speeches, movies

and folk tales. The theme lauds the opportunity to improve one's

social position and is often referred to as the "American Dream"

(Abrahamson, Jt £l.« 1976).

It has been suggested, however, that the "rags to riches" story

is not all it is made out to be. Social mobility necessitates a num

ber of adjustments for the individuals involved. Remaining in the same

social position all of one's life eases social functioning. The

individual is constantly confronted with the same or at least similar

situations, consequently life become predictable, stable and secure.

In contrast, the mobile individual is confronted with new and varying

situations. Social stimuli and the norms guiding social conduct are

often ambiguous for the mobile person.

A number of studies have shown that social mobility is a dis

turbing affair for the mobile individual (see the Review of Litera

ture) . The social adjustments required of these people are often

quite demanding. The mobile person miist be able to get along with

people and fit in with the new way of life, in the stratum which he

enters. Speech, manners, tastes and many habits may need to be modi

fied or changed. In many respects, the mobile individual is out of

tune with his original environment and with his new environment

simultaneously. He is in many ways a "marginal man." In this study

we propose to examine the intricate effect of benefits and disturb

ances of social mobility on individual's mental well-being.

Review of Literature

The majority of sociological studies addressing the consequences

of social mobility stem from two major classical works, Emile Durkheim's

Suicide (1951) and Pitirim Sorokin's Social and Cultural Mobility

(1927). Although both of these works addressed the societal conse

quences of social mobility, studies concerning individual consequences

of social mobility have utilized the works as a point of reference.

Their works, to be discussed below, will serve as the theoretical base

for this study.

Durkheim: Social Mobility and Anomia

Durkheim was concerned, among other things, about the abnormal

forms of behavior in modem Western societies. Although suicide could

be found in every type of society, Durkheim held that the suicide

rate had become abnormal at the end of the nineteenth century in

Europe. He claimed that the high rate of suicide during this period

sprang from a social pathology. This pathology was rooted in the

discontent arising from the search for money and goods. Economic

appetites could not be appeased.

Anomic suicide, from the point of view of the individual, occurs

when the relationship between the individual and the moral order con

stituting the society is ill defined or contradictory. It reflects a

state of disorientation. The individual's perceptions of the rules

governing social conduct are unclear. Durkheim noted that economic

crises are situations which may lead to a state of anomia, whether the

crisis is sudden affluence or poverty. A frequently cited example of

anomia is that of a poor man suddenly inheriting a large sum of money.

This person, unaccustomed to wealth, is disoriented. The conduct

appropriate in his previously impoverished state is no longer suitable.

He must adjust to his new life situation. The individual neither fits

into his group of origin nor his group of destination. In this situa

tion, anomic suicide might occur. This is the situation, "rags to

riches," described as the "American Dream." Thus, to Durkheim, social

mobility has a definite detrimental effect on an individual's mental

well being as reflected from the propensity of suicidal behavior.

Sorokin: Social Mobility, Social Isolation and Mental Strain

Sorokin dealt with the effects of mobility on a number of levels.

Although his main concern was with the societal consequences of

mobility, he did address the effects of mobility on the individual.

Like, Durkheim, Sorokin suggested that mobility tended to produce a

state of disorientation for the individual involved. The nonmobile,

living continually in similar circumstances, developed a character

which allowed him successful and pleasurable social interaction. His

life was predictable.

A mobile individual, on the other hand, was characterized by con

tinual change. Mobility prohibited the development of a secure social

character for that individual. Mobile individuals, according to

Sorokin, were constantly confronted with new situations. The behavior

of the mobile had to be versatile, changeable, capable of great varia

tions and modifications. This need to constantly adjust and readjust

one's behavior could lead to mental strain (Sorokin: 1927, 508-510).

Thus Sorokin stated

"Great mental strain and versatility of behavior, demanded by life in a mobile society, are so exacting that they can not be met by many individuals. Their nervous systems crumble under the burden of the great strains required of them. Hence arises the increase of mental disease and nervousness, psychoses and neurosis...." (Sorokin: 1927, 515)

Sorokin went on to state that increases or decreases in mobility

also influenced an individual's chances for developing intimate

relationships with others. As a rule, it is difficult to become

intimate with a person in a few brief meetings. In an immobile society

intimacy was possible. Permanancy of social position also meant

permanancy of people among whom one lived. In a mobile society people

were shifting from group to group and place to place. In such cir

cumstances chances for intimacy were much less. Mobility promoted social

isolation (Sorokin: 1927, 522). As can be seen, for Sorokin, many

ill effects accompany mobility for the individuals involved.

These references made by Durkheim and Sorokin have generated

numerous works of various kinds on the effects of social mobility on

individual's mental well being. Various recent empirical works have

also related social mobility to various negative consequences, including

social isolation, emotional maladjustment, mental illness and suicide.

The following review of recent empirical studies will provide further

information on the extent of the link between the two.

The Effects of Social Mobility on Individuals: Social Isolation

One of the earliest empirical studies relating mobility to social

isolation was that conducted by Blau (1955). Blau suggested that mo

bility poses special dilemmas for mobile individuals in establishing

interpersonal relationships and becoming integrated in the community.

The results of the analysis show that 1) mobile people are not well

integrated; 2) mobile people manifest stronger feelings of insecurity

than nonmobile individuals; and 3) although mobile people have a wide

variety of social associations, they do not belong either to their

class of origin or to their class of destination.

Along that same line, Litwak (1960) sought to examine the re

lationship between occupational mobility and extended family cohesion.

His sample consisted of 920 white, married females living in an urban

area of Buffalo, New York. All these women had recently moved into a

new home. Using father-son occupational position differences as a

measure of mobility, he classified his sample into four occupational

mobility groupings: stationary upper class, stationary lower class,

upwardly mobile and downwardly mobile. Extended family visits and

measures of extended family attachments, status and family orientation

were used to indicate extended family cohesion. The results of the

study suggested that the mobile individuals who were upwardly mobile,

status oriented, and nuclear or nonfamily oriented were least likely

to exhibit extended family cohesion. Litwak's study appears to re

affirm the link between mobility and lack of social integration.

A few years later, McClelland (1967) again addressed the rela

tionship between social mobility and extended family cohesion. The

study was based on a sample of college students. Four mobility group

ings, stationary highs, stationary lows, upwardly mobile and downwardly

mobile, were once again compared. He found that the upper stationary

group were most likely to have frequent contacts with extended family

members, whereas lower stationary were least likely to have extended

family contacts. The frequency of extended family contacts for both

of the mobile groups fell in between the two stationary groups.

According to McClelland, the general trend of the findings indicates

that the mobility experience in a status oriented society is likely to

have some disruptive consequences.

In that same year, Ellis and Lane (1967) conducted a panel

analysis to test the proposition that social mobility is a disrup

tive social experience. A sample of lower class students attending

Stanford University, a school predominantly attended by upper class

students, was examined. The results indicate that lower class

students tended to have lower participation levels in various activ

ities. They typically were described by others as withdrawn or as

loners. Ellis and Lane concluded that the mobility experience for

these lower class students lead to social isolation.

Even though the measures of social integration and isolation

vary in the above studies, the findings tend to be similar. Generally,

these studies concluded that social mobility tended to disrupt existing

interpersonal relations and further hinder the development of new

social relations. The effect of mobility on individuals, however,

appears to go beyond what have been described here. Some scholars

have found it to be detrimental to the mental well being of the indi

viduals involved. The next section will review some studies addressing

this issue.

Effects of Social Mobility on Individuals: Emotional

Maladjustment, Mental Illness and Suicide

One of the earliest studies on the relationship between social

mobility and mental well being was that of Hollingshead, Ellis and

Kirby (1954). In this study, subsamples of the psychoneurotic and

schizophernic patients from nonadjacent social classes were drawn

from the psychiatric population of the New Haven Community. Comparable

8

control subsamples of nonpatients from the same nonadjacent social

classes were drawn from the general population. Index scores based

on educational and occupational ratings were computed for both

patients and nonpatients. Both individual and parental family scores

were developed. The differences in these scores was used as the mea

sure of mobility. Vertical mobility was shown to be a factor of

significance when considering either psychoneurosis or schizophemia

in the representative samples of the New Haven population. Hollings

head, et sd. however, were careful to note that the findings did not

indicate that mobility was the only cause or even the principal factor

affecting mental illness.

A few years later, Srole, Langer, Michael, Opler and Rennie (1962),

in their study, went one step further to hypothesize that upward mo

bility and its respective rewards effects one's mental health posi

tively, whereas downward mobility and its respective deprivations

have a negative effect on one's mental health. A sample of 911 men

and never married women was used to test the proposition. Due to the

complexities of dealing with income, occupation was used as the only

measure of status. The respondent and his/her father's occupation

were divided into six categories. Mobility was then measured using

father's occupational category as the base. Respondents were grouped

into three categories: upwardly mobile, nonmobile and downwardly

mobile. Measures of mental health were determined by psychiatrists'

evaluations of responses to a questionnaire. Mental health ratings

were placed in four categories: well, mild symptom formation, moder

ate symptom formation and impaired.

The results of this study indicated that in the nonmobile group

the number of individuals rated as "impaired" was almost the same as

the number of individuals rated as "well". In the upwardly mobile

group, the number of individuals rated as "well" out numbered the

number rated as "impaired" by 3 to 2. Individuals rated "impaired"

in the downwardly mobile group out numbered the individuals rated as

"well" by 5 to 2. The basic hypothesis proposed by Srole, et al.

appears to be supported, that upward mobility effects one's mental

state positively and that downward mobility negatively effects one's

mental health.

The relationship between social mobility and suicides was exam

ined in a study by Breed (1963). A sample of 103 white men between

the ages of 20 and 60 living in New Orleans who had committed suicide

during the years between 1954 and 1959, inclusively, was studied. The

information was gathered through extensive interviews with the de

ceased's relatives, friends, employers, coworkers, neighbors, land

lords, physicians and psychiatrists. It was found that almost two-

thirds of the younger suicides held occupational positions lower than

the occupational position held by their father. Three-fourths of them

had experienced a drop in status, either occupationally or in income.

Breed concluded that mobility itself can be an anomic situation.

In a study of 546 white, adult, Protestant men in Washington D.C,

Kessin found that social mobility was related to emotional maladjust

ment and lack of social integration. Emotional maladjustment was

measured by the psychosomatic symptoms scale and the manifest anxiety

10

scale. Occupational levels of the respondents and their father's

were divided into four categories: professional, management and

sales, craftsmen and farmers, and semi and unskilled workers. Using

the respondent's father's occupation as the base, Kessin found that

respondents moving upward two or more occupational levels had signif

icantly higher psychosomatic symptom and manifest anxiety scores.

These works reviewed above also tend to support the proposition

that social mobility may be a disruptive social experience. In con

trast to the works described in the last section, these studies indi

cate that downward mobility is likely to produce a more disturbing

effect than upward mobility. Furthermore, upward mobility could

potentially have a beneficial effect.

Some Contrary Findings

Despite the apparent wealth of studies which tend to support the

proposed relationship between social mobility and individuals' mental

states, the results are far from conclusive as the following studies

attested. Curtis (1959) sought to examine the relationship between

mobility of the individual and his participation in formal voluntary

associations. Using father-son occupational position differences as

a measure of mobility, he found no significant differences between

mobile and nonmobile individuals in their participation in formal

voluntary associations. The study was conducted on a sample of white

men living in Detroit. Curtis found the s ne to be true to the wives

of the respondents. Curtis felt that although mobility might produce

temporary isolation, the exact point of isolation was difficult to

11

measure. This was because, according to Curtis, the exact point of

intergenerational mobility was difficult to specify.

In a study of intergenerational mobility and alienation, Bean,

et al. (1973) found mobility to be an integrating experience,

especially in a society which emphasizes achievement and success.

This study was based on information gathered on a random sample drawn

from a population of 11,000 salaried and hourly paid workers and

independent businessmen in a Southwestern community. Occupations

were classified into four categories: high white collar, low white

collar, high manual, and low manual. Dean's scale measures of power-

lessness, normlessness and meaninglessness and Srole's measures of

anomia and self-estrangement were utilized as indicators of aliena

tion.

The results of the analysis indicated that general alienation was

inversely related to occupational status of origin and destination.

The upwardly mobile and the nonmobile in the occupation of destination

exhibited similar feelings of societal estrangement whereas nonmobile

individuals at the status of origin were more likely to feel societal

estrangement than the upwardly mobile from that origin.

Seeman (1977) in a recent study also found that mobility was not

a profoundly disturbing affair for the mobile individual. Since class

distinctions are more definitive in France, he theorized that the

effects of mobility should be greater for Frenchmen than for Ameri

cans. The data used in the analysis was derived from interviews con

ducted in Los Angeles in 1966 and in Paris in 1967. Approximately

12

450 workers were interviewed in each country. The items utilized to

measure alienation included Rotter^s 13 item alienation scale,

Srole's anomia scale, Middleton's alienation scale, Seeman's work

alienation scale, and three items directed at participation in the

occupational community. Respondents were classified as either manual

or white collar. The results found little support in either country

to the proposition that mobility, either upward or downward, disrupts

established social ties and weakens the network of social bonds.

Hypotheses of the Study

Even though the majority of the empirical works cited above tend

to support the proposed relationship between social mobility and an

individual's mental state, the support is not clearcut nor is it con

sistent. In addition, there are several apparent weaknesses in these

studies. To begin with, none of the studies reviewed utilized a

national representative sample. This makes it difficult to have a

meaningful generalization. Also, with regard to sampling methods, a

number of the studies employed sampling as a means of control. For

example, only white males between the ages of 18 and 24 were used in

the analyses conducted by Ellis and Lane (1967). Comparisons between

race, sex or age groupings is impossible. Sampling, however, is not

the only problem encountered in this body of literature. Measures

of social mobility and individuals* mental states also varied from

study to study. These variations make cross-reference questionable.

Having taken these problems into consideration, and following the

13

theoretical framework presented by Durkheim, Sorokin, and others,

three general hypotheses will be examined in this study:

1. Individuals experiencing mobility are less likely than their counterparts to maintain sound mental well-being.

2. Individuals experiencing upward social mobility are more likely than individuals experiencing downward mobility to maintain sound mental well-being.

3. The effects of social mobility on individuals mental well-being should persist even after relevant variables have been controlled.

In the next section, we shall discuss why certain variables need

to be controlled when examining the effects of social mobility on

individual's mental well-being.

Variables Controlled in the Analysis

Two groups of variables could potentially confound the relation

ship between social mobility and mental well-being. The first group

are those factors which influence social mobility, such as, education,

race and age. The second group consists of factors other than mobility

which influence one's mental state, such as, social stability and

place of residence. Education and age have also been found to influ

ence one's mental well-being.

Mobility Related Factors

In an achievement-oriented society, factors such as educational

attainment, are quite influential on an individual's social mobility.

Consistently, a strong relationship has been found between an

14

individual's educational attainment and his position in the occupa

tional structure (Blau and Duncan: 1965; Krauss: 1976). Informal

institutional arrangements also influence one's social mobility.

One's sex and racial background have also been found to influence an

individual's opportunities in the occupational structure (Blau and

Duncan: 1965; Krauss: 1976). Age also effects one's chances to be

socially mobile.

Omstien (1976) states that it is not uncommon for one to ex

perience downward mobility upon entering the labor force. He also

notes that most mobility within the occupational structure is likely

to occur during the first five to ten years after one's initial entry

to the labor force as a full time laborer. Since these variables are

related to an individual's social mobility, they should be controlled

in the analysis of the effect of social mobility on an individual's

mental well-being.

Mental Well-Being Related Factors

Lowe, Peek and Doroff (1978) found social stability, a variable

created through the consideration of factors such as social partici

pation, occupational stability and marital status, to be strongly

related to one's mental well-being. Other studies have repeatedly

found a relationship between mental states and various aspects of the

stability index created by Lowe, et al. (Bradburn and Caplovitz:

1960; Phillips: 1969; Edwards and Klemmack: 1973; Clemente and

Sauer: 1976). In that same study, Lowe and associates also reported

15

a negative relationship between mental well-being and urban resi

dence, confirming Faris' and Dunham's (1939) earlier findings.

Education and age have also been consistently reported as re

lated to mental well-being. Bradburn and Caplovitz (1965) found

education to be positively related to an individual's mental state,

reiterating the findings of Veroff and Feld (1960). The relation

ship between one's age and one's mental state has not always been

clear; however, some type of relationship is regularly reported.

Initially, an indirect relationship was reported between age and

one's mental state (Alston and Dudley: 1973; Alston: 1974). How

ever, studies employing various controls report a direct relation

ship between these two variables (Clemente and Sauer: 1976; Witt:

1978). For this reason, we will also include these variables in the

analysis to examine their relative contributions to an individual's

mental well-being vis-^-vis social mobility.

Additional Considerations

A research tradition, apparent in the review of literature,

suggests that mobility may affect an individual's mental state from

two perspectives. The movement, the process of change, may influence

the mobile individual's mental state. The position of destination

may also influence the mobile individual's ability to maintain a sound

mental state. If the class of destination has a subculture which is

different from that of the class of origin, resocialization may be

required for successful social functioning. Both of these aspects

of social mobility will be examined in this study.

16

The effect of mobility on mental well-being may also be clouded

due to the age of the mobile individual. Downward mobility means

something different for persons at the beginning and middle of their

career (Curtis: 1961). Therefore, it is suggested that the effects

of mobility are more strongly felt in the middle of one's occupa

tional career, that is, approximately between the ages of 35 and 55.

Occupational mobility prior to this time may be viewed by the indi

vidual as a temporary state, and therefore mobility may have

little affect on the mobile individual's mental state. By the same

token, once an individual is beyond the age of 55, he is likely to

have adjusted to his social position realizing his occupational status

has probably stablized. Thus, the effect of mobility on his mental

state may be slight. The middle career age grouping may thus be a

critical period and should be considered separately.

Additional analyses based on the arguments presented here could

be considered as extensions of the three main hypotheses. We will

examine these extensions in this study as well.

CHAPTER II

METHODS

In this chapter we will describe the data sources of the study

and the methodology selected. We will also describe how different

variables are operationalized. The statistical analysis used to

test the hypotheses will also be presented in this section.

The Sample

The data from the General Social Survey conducted annually by

the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) are used in this study.

The years used here include 1974, 1975 and 1977. Information relevant

to this study was not collected in the 1976 survey and was excluded.

The sampling methods utilized varied slightly in the years examined.

The 1974 survey was based on a modified probability design introduc

ing the quota element at the block level. The 1975 sample was based

on a transitional sample design, one-half full probability and one-

half block quota. The sample for the 1977 survey was based on a full

probability design. Each sampling method will be considered to have

generated a representative sample of adults in the United States.

Since we have introduced a relatively large number of control

variables in the subsequent analysis, we .will combine the three years

survey results together as our total sample. It is always debatable

whether or not the relationships between sets of variables will be

consistent from year to year. We are making the assumption that

given the short span of time, the relationships will remain stable.

17

18

Operationalization of Main Variables

The dependent variable, mental well-being, following the lead

of Lowe, £t_ al. (1978), was created through a factor analysis of five

variables concerning life satisfaction and a single general happiness

item. The areas of life satisfaction tapped include: satisfaction

with the city in which one lives (satcity); satisfaction with one's

hobbies (sathobby); satisfaction with one's health (sathealt); satis

faction with one's friends (satfmd) and satisfaction with one's

family (satfam). The result of the factor analysis is shown in

Table 1. Using the coefficients of the loadings as weights the

variable mental well being is constructed as follows:

Mental Well-Being = 0.47024 satcity+0.56260 sathobby +

0.48752 sathealt + 0.69840 satfmd + 0.48734 happy.

These variables have been coded in such a way that a high score

indicates a state of high mental well being and a low score otherwise.

For the satisfaction variables, the seven possible responses to "how

much satisfaction do you get . . . " ranged from a very great deal to

none. The happiness question had three possible responses: very

happy, pretty happy, and not too happy. Both the satisfaction vari

ables and the happiness variable were scored so that a very great

deal of satisfaction and very happy received the high scores. The

other possible responses were ranked accordingly.

The variable, social mobility, is defined and measured in the

conventional way. If a respondent is a man or an unmarried woman, the

19

mobility score is obtained by subtracting the respondent's occupa

tional prestige score from his/her father's occupational prestige

score. If a respondent is a married woman, her occupational prestige

score is her husband's. The mobility score is then computed the same

as described above. The determination of occupational prestige

scores was based on the two digit Hodge, Siegel and Rossi prestige

score (Siegel: 1971). All men in the sample are considered. Only

those women who were currently married or never married are consid

ered.

As measured, a negative value on the mobility score indicates a

downward mobility for that individual and a positive value likewise

indicates an upward mobility for the individual involved. Zero in

dicates stationary status. A high positive value indicates a high

3

degree of mobility. Mobility as measured is considered as an in

terval variable.

Operationalization of Control Variables

As can be recalled, in stating the third hypothesis several con

trol variables were introduced. These include social stability, age,

race, education, sex and urbanism. In this section, we shall discuss

the operationalization of these variables.

Social stability is adapted from a study conducted by Lowe, e_t al

(1978). It is a combined total of the following items:

1) Is the respondent married?

2) Does the respondent live with their spouse?

20

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Does the respondent live with any adult relatives?

Does the respondent live with anyone?

Is the respondent currently employed?

Has the respondent avoided extended unemployment for the

last decade?

Does the respondent belong to an occupational group?

Is the respondent affiliated with a religious group?

Does the respondent attend church more than yearly?

Does the respondent attend church regularly?

Is the respondent affiliated with a church group?

Does the respondent belong to other associations?

Does the respondent ever visit relatives?

Does the respondent ever visit friends?

Does the respondent ever visit neighbors?

Does the respondent live in the same place (city or town)

as when he was 16 years old?

An affirmative response to each of these questions was given a score

of 1. A negative response was scored 0. An individual's social

stability score may then range from 0 to 16, 0 being extremely low

social stability and 16 being very high social stability.

Age is measured as the respondent's actual age. Race is indicat

ed from a respondent's answer to the question: "What race do you

consider yourself?". In this study, we use two categories, whites

and nonwhites. Education is measured in terms of the number of years

of formal schooling for which a respondent received credit. Sex is

21

measured in the conventional way with men coded as 1 and women as 0.

Urbanism is in terms of the NORC population size of place. The

areas are grouped such that 1 indicates high urbanism and 4 indicates

low urbanism.

The prestige score assigned to the respondent will be used to

indicate class of destination. The prestige values are coded such

that occupations carrying a low prestige score also carry a low numeric

value. Class of destination has been divided into three groups;

upper class, middle class and lower class. The prestige scores

ranging from 60 to 89 are classified as upper class, from 40 to 59

as middle class and from 10 to 39 as lower class.

Statistical Analysis

Two types of statistical techniques are selected and used in

this study. They are the correlational analysis and the multiple re

gression analysis. The correlational analysis is used primarily to

address the first two general hypotheses as stated earlier. The mul

tiple regression analysis, on the other hand, is used specifically

to address the third hypothesis. Since we do not have any compell

ing reason, either theoretically or empirically, the stepwise regres

sion method of SPSS is used in this analysis. Part of the motiva

tion for using the stepwise method is to examine the extent to which

social mobility is capable of explaining an individual's mental well-

being vis-^-vis other variables considered.

CHAPTER III

FINDINGS

For ease of presenting the empirical results of this study, we

shall organize our findings around the three general hypotheses of

this study. To reiterate, the three general hypotheses are as fol

lows:

1. Individuals experiencing mobility are less likely than their counterparts to maintain sound mental well-being.

2. Individuals experiencing upward social mobility are more likely than individuals experiencing downward mobility to maintain sound mental well-being.

3. The effects of social mobility on individuals' mental well-being should persist even after relevant variables are controlled.

It was argued previously that the effects of mobility on mental

well-being may vary depending on the mobile individual's class of

destination, therefore we shall address each hypothesis in two

general forms. First, we shall present mobility in general, regard

less of class of destination. The implication here is that the

higher the mobility experienced, meaning the further apart father

and son/daughter occupational prestige scores, the greater the effect

on the son's/daughter's mental well-being. The second type of analysis

will compare the differential effects of class of destination on mo

bile individual's mental well-being.

22

23

In addition to the report of the findings around the three gen

eral hypotheses, we will also examine age specific mobility for the

reasons presented earlier. Both general mobility and class of des

tination distinctions will be discussed for age specific mobility.

General Social Mobility

and Mental Well-Being

Table 2 presents the simple correlation coefficients between

different states of general social mobility and mental well-being.

As shown, the correlation between the general total mobility and

mental well-being is not significant statistically. This indicates

that the first general hypothesis as stated and operationalized in

this study is not supported by our data. We shall attempt to provide

some possible interpretation of the results in a later section.

However, when we examine the matter further by looking at class

destination relationships between social mobility and mental well-

being, some interesting results are observed. With the exception of

the lower class of destination, the magnitude of the relationship

between social mobility and mental well-being has increased, from

0.019 to 0.081 and 0.089 for upper and middle class respectively.

Looking further into the strength of the correlation one notices that

the relationship is strongest in the middle class of destination

category. This appears to imply that the effect of social mobility

on an individual's mental well-being is the most pronounced for those

24

individuals moving into the middle class category. We shall discuss

the implications of this finding in a later section.

Thus, in terms of the first general hypothesis, that individ

uals experiencing social mobility are less likely than their counter

parts to maintain sound mental well-being, the answer is a qualified

"yes." That is, the theory applies only to a small, specific situation

rather than a true general phenomenon. This specific result is

further reinforced by our analysis on upward mobility to be described

next.

Upward Social Mobility, Downward Social Mobility

and Mental Well-Being

As suggested by Srole, et al. (1962) individuals experiencing

upward social mobility should be more likely than individuals experi

encing downward social mobility to maintain sound mental well-being.

Table 3 shows the simple correlation coefficients between upward

social mobility, downward social mobility and mental well-being.

Several observations can be made.

First of all, one notes that neither upward social mobility nor

downward social mobility correlates significantly with mental well-

being. Thus, statistically, there is no observable difference be

tween upward social mobility and downward social mobility on an in

dividual's mental well-being. The distinction suggested by Srole,

et al. and stated in hypothesis 2, that individuals experiencing up

ward social mobility are more likely than individuals experiencing

downward social mobility to maintain sound mental well-being, is not

25

supported. In fact, this hypothesis was further contradicted by the

class of destination specific comparisons between the two.

As shown in Table 3, one can see that for the upwardly mobile

individual, with the exception of the lower class of destination,

the relationship is both significant and negative. This, in fact,

says that upwardly mobile individuals are likely to sacrifice sound

mental well-being. This contradiction to Srole's, e_t. al. sugges

tion and our hypothesis 2 is even more pronounced when one examines

the result of the downwardly mobile individuals. As shown, none of

the class of destination specific relationships for the downwardly

mobile are significantly statistically.

The results shown in Table 3, in fact, suggest one interesting

phenomenon. It implies that the negative relationship between class

specific mobility and mental well-being observed in Table 2 are

largely and primarily due to upward social mobility rather than down

ward social mobility. It suggests that as far as mental well-being

is concerned, as operationalized in this study, it is more problematic

for the upwardly mobile individual than for the downwardly mobile

individual.

Social Mobility and Mental Well-Being

A Multiple Regression Analysis

In order to examine the third hypothesis, on the effect of con

trol variables on the relationship between social mobility and mental

well-being, the stepwise multiple regression analysis is selected as

the statistical technique. Included in the regression analysis are

26

variables such as social stability, race, education, age, sex and

urbanism. Following the correlational analysis reported above, the

multiple regression analysis are preformed for general, upward, and

downward mobility for each of the three class destination subgroups.

We shall discuss each one of these analyses separately below.

General Mobility

When mobility as a whole is considered, we found that social

stability has the strongest effect on mental well-being. The order

in which the variables entered into the stepwise regression is as

follows: social stability, race, urbanism, education, mobility and

age. These seven variables jointly account for twelve percent of

the variance of the mental well-being scores. Table 4 presents the

results.

As it can be recalled in hypothesis 1, there was no significant

relationship between the total general mobility and mental well-being.

The result of the regression analysis is consistent with this earlier

finding. It indicates that the general social mobility does not con

tribute significantly to the variance of the variable, mental well-

being. Our speculation that some of the variables introduced in the

regression analysis may confound the effect of social mobility on

mental well-being was not supported. We shall now move on to examine

the effect of social mobility on mental well-being the same way for

each of the three class destination specific groups.

27

Upper Class of Destination

As shown in Table 5, there is no significant effect of social

mobility on mental well-being within this class. This is consistent

with the results of the correlational analysis. Once again, social

stability is found to have the strongest effect on mental well-being.

The same is true for the variable race. These variables taken to

gether account for 6.43 percent of the variance, a substantially

small amount when compared with general mobility as a whole.

Middle Class of Destination

The effect of social mobility on mental well-being within this

category was found to be significant at the 0.05 level. This is true

despite the inclusion of control variables. This appears to even

more strongly affirm our earlier finding that upwardly mobile indi

viduals into middle class are persistently most vulnerable in terms

of mental well-being. The mental well-being of this class of people

appears to be better explained by this set of variables; a total of

12.25 percent of the variance was explained. Social stability and

race, again, are the more important variables. Along with social

mobility, these three variables account for practically all of the

variance explained by the seven variables in the analysis. Table 6

shows the results.

Lower Class of Destination

The simple correlation between social mobility and mental well-

being within this category was not statistically significant, as

28

reported earlier. However, the results of the regression analysis

reveal a significant effect of social mobility on mental well-being.

This seems to indicate that some of the variables included in the

analysis had suppressed the effect of social mobility on mental

well-being. Due to the small proportion of variance explained by

social mobility for this class of people, no further investigation

was made to identify the suppressor(s) in this context. We do not

believe that there is a theoretically significant result here.

Table 7 reports the results discussed here.

We shall further examine the relationship between social mobility

and mental well-being as we did previously in the correlation analysis

for the upward and downward mobility groupings separately.

Upward Mobility and Mental Well-Being

It can be recalled in the simple correlation analysis that the

relationship between general upward mobility and mental well-being is

not significant statistically. However, as shown in Table 8, when

control variables are entered into the analysis, a positive and sig

nificant relationship is revealed. This implies that upward social

mobility per se does have a positive impact on an individual's mental

well-being. The lack of a significant relationship between the two

found in the simple correlational analysis earlier was apparently

due to the suppressor effect of some of the variables included in the

analysis. However, the fact that upward social mobility alone ac

counts for so small an amount of the variance of the variable, mental

well-being, warns one to make this conclusion very cautiously. For

29

this reason, we are very reluctant to redraw our conclusion that

upward social mobility does have a disruptive effect on individuals'

mental well-being.

It appears to be a good strategy for us to postpone our con

clusion in this regard until we finish examining the class of des

tination specific results. We shall proceed to examine, in the

following, regression analysis for each of the three class destina

tion groups.

Upper Class of Destination

Shown in Table 9 are the results of the regression analysis.

The analysis of the relationship between social mobility and mental

well-being does not alter the relationship previously found. The

negative significant relationship is maintained. This confirms our

earlier conclusion that upward mobility of individuals into upper

class groupings does have a detrimental effect on an individual's

mental well-being. This persistence, and the relatively higher

proportion of explained variance, indicates to us that upward mo

bility does have some negative effect on an individual's mental

well-being. This is also confirmed by our analysis on middle class

destination group to be examined next.

Middle Class of Destination

Table 10 shows the results of the analysis for middle class

destination group. Again, one can see the addition of control

variables does not change the previously observed negative relation

ship between mental well-being and social mobility. As we have

30

pointed out above, this result leads us to conclude that upward

social mobility has a disruptive rather than beneficial effect on

an individual's mental well-being.

Lower Class of Destination

It is interesting to note that upward mobility into lower class

destination, a relatively small gain in status indeed when consid

ered along with other variables, does have a definite negative

effect on mental well-being. This was not the case in the simple

correlational analysis. This adds considerably more weight to the

conclusion that upward mobility per se, regardless of the distance

of the movement, does have a significantly detrimental effect. Table

11 reports this result.

It will be recalled that in our earlier correlational analysis,

the downwardly mobile individuals did not, unlike their upwardly

mobile counterparts, experience a definite effect on their mental

well-being. We shall examine in the following, the results of this

in the regression analysis.

Downward Mobility and Mental Well Being

Shown in Table 12 are the results of the regression analysis

for the downwardly mobile individuals. The result shows no statis

tically significant effect on mental well-being. This is consistent

with the previous findings shown in Table 3. This implies, contrary

to our expectations, that downwardly mobile individuals take life

changes better than their upwardly mobile counterparts.

31

We shall examine, in the following, each class of destination

group. However, due to the small sample size (N = 23) for the

upper class destination group, the analysis for this group is

omitted.

Middle and Lower Class of Destination

Shown in Tables 13 and 14 are the results of the regression

analysis for the middle and lower class destination groups respec

tively. As one can clearly see, no significant effect is observed.

This is in accordance with our previous findings in terms of simple

correlational analysis. Thus, our conclusion that downwardly mobile

individuals are taking life change better than their upwardly mobile

counterparts is quite firmly supported. We shall try to make inter

pretations of these results in a later section.

ADDITIONAL ANALYSIS

It was argued in Chapter I that social mobility may mean some

thing quite different to individuals, depending on the position of

their occupational career and the stage of the life cycle. It was

further argued that individuals between the ages of 35 and 55 may be

most vulnerable to the effects of social mobility. The results of

the analysis conducted specifically for those individuals within this

age group are presented below.

Age Specific Mobility; General Mobility

The simple correlation between general mobility and mental well-

being within this specific age category, i.e. ages 35 to 55, shown

32

in table 15, is not statistically significant. When examined further

within each class of destination, no significant relationship was

found. In addition, the regression analysis does not reveal a sig

nificant effect of social mobility and mental well-being (see Table

16). Additional class destination specific regression analysis

for all practical purposes did not change this result. This appears

to reject the argument that individuals' position in the occupational

career and stage in the life cycle do have differential effect in

terms of the relationship between social mobility and mental well-

being.

It is not clear whether or not, by restructuring the age group

in the analysis, the result would be altered. Different researchers,

for different theoretical reasons, may want to do so. We shall, for

our purpose, here conclude that no age specific differential effect

is observed.

Since we had found previously that the real effect of social

mobility on mental well-being lies in upward mobility, and more spe

cifically on middle and upper class destination specific categories,

we shall further analyze age specific upward and downward mobility

for its effects on mental well-being.

Age Specific Mobility: Upward Mobility

When age specific mobility is examined for the upwardly mobile,

a significant correlation is found as shown in Table 17, between mo

bility and mental well-being. Furthermore, the relationship is posi

tive. This appears to confirm the assertion of Srole, et al. that

33

upward mobility could be beneficial for the individual involved. How

ever, this beneficial effect disappears when other variables are

introduced in the regression analysis. Table 18 shows this result.

Thus, we can not really conclude that the beneficial effect of up

ward mobility for this age specific group is substantiated. This

conclusion is further affirmed by our additional analysis of class

destination regression analysis. None of the effects was statis

tically significant. The results are not shown here.

Age Specific Mobility: Downward Mobility

Shown in Table 19 are the results of age specific effects of

downward social mobility on mental well-being. With the exception

of the middle class destination, none of the relationships are found

to be statistically significant. However, this significant relation

ship disappears when considered in the context of the regression

analysis. Table 20 shows this result. Thus, we shall conclude that

as far as this age group is concerned, there is no visible relation

ship between downward social mobility and mental well-being. This,

incidentally, is consistent with the result found in the non-age

specific, i.e. the total sample, group.

CHAPTER IV

DISCUSSION

Sorokin (1927), and along with him a host of others, hold that

individuals experiencing social mobility tend to have difficulties

in adjustment and readjustment, and thus eventually may have problems

of mental well-being. We found this not to be true in general in

our national representative sample. This of course may have some

thing to do with how social mobility and mental well-being are

operationalized in this study.

However, when the data were analyzed further in terms of class

destination specific groups, some interesting and persistent results

were found. First of all, we found that among the mobile individuals

only a subset of them appear to be effected. This is the segment of

the sample who move into the so-called middle class of destination.

In other words, mobile individuals who ended in the middle class

position are most vulnerable to mental problems. This particular

relationship persists even after the effects of other variables were

controlled. This gave us the confidence to conclude that the effect

of mobility on mental well-being for this group is quite real. This

also suggests to the theorists following Sorokin and others, that all

mobile individuals should not be treated as alike. Perhaps, the ad

justment problems involved for individuals moving from lower lower

class to upper lower class or middle class may not be the same as

for individuals moving from middle class to upper class. Our find

ings suggest that the effect of mobility on mental well-being has

34

35

little to do with how far a person moves. Rather, the effect of

mobility on well-being is related to what group one moves into,

especially if one moved into the middle class.

It is conceivable that middle class Americans are the true

status seekers, that they are status conscious and status oriented

people. They may feel threatened by the upwardly mobile, especially

from the lower class positions. To secure their position and reduce

the threat posed by those upwardly mobile lower class people, they

may make the adjustment for these people particularly difficult.

The upper class people, on the other hand, being more secure in

their positions, may not be as status conscious. They may not feel

threatened by those who are upwardly mobile to their ranks. And,

thus, they make the adjustment for the upwardly mobile into their

class relatively easy. This is an area that stratification and mo

bility theorists should consider further.

Following Srole, al. (1962), we hypothesized that individuals

experiencing upward mobility should be more likely than their down

wardly mobile counterparts to maintain sound mental well-being.

Interestingly enough, with minor exceptions, this hypothesis was

almost consistently rejected by our analysis. First, we found that

it is not the downwardly mobile who have problems with mental well-

being. In fact, downward mobility is not significantly related to

mental well-being. Second, a negative relationship was found between

upward mobility and mental well-being. Although this relationship

was neutralized when other variables were included in the analysis.

36

the class destination specific analysis shows a very definite nega

tive relationship and effect on mental well-being. This is almost

a direct contradiction of the findings reported by Srole, et al.

(1962).

Durkheim suggested that during times of economic prosperity,

economic appetites could not be satisfied. Along this same line,

perhaps when an individual experiences upward mobility, he will not

be satisfied with his new position. He realizes that further im

provement is now possible. America is truly a status conscious

society and once one succumbs to feelings of relative deprivation

it becomes difficult to ever be satisfied with one's social position.

Multiple regression technique was used to examine the degree of

persistence of the relationship between social mobility and mental

well-being. It was also used to investigate potential suppressor

effects of- other independent variables in the analysis. First, the

negative effect of general social mobility of middle class destina

tion on mental well-being has persisted. The same is practically

true for the negative effect of upward mobility on mental well-being,

These results tend to further affirm the discussion and inference

made above. The regression analysis did not alter the results of

the simple correlation analysis.

Second, though some suppressor effects were observed in the re

gression analysis, as we suspected that it might be, these changes

did not alter our conclusions in any significant and visible way.

Some had neutralized weak correlations between some state of social

37

mobility and mental well-being, by and large, the relationships are

so weak and are borderline with regard to statistical significance

that we did not feel justified in re-evaluating the results. Thus,

in this particular context, the regressional analysis employed had

reaffirmed our conclusions drawn from the simple correlational

analysis and no drastic change in the results were observed.

The age specific analysis was performed with the expectation

that some new insights and results may be revealed. We felt par

ticularly strong that if social mobility has any actual impact on an

individual's mental well-being at all, the age specific, i.e. ages

35 to 55, should be the key group. The evidence failed to support

our expectations. First, we did not find more significant relation

ship between various states of social mobility and mental well-being

as we expected. Second, some of the original, i.e. non-age specific

relationships between social mobility and mental well-being, dis

appeared altogether. The only statistically significant results

we found on the age specific group were a negative relationship be

tween social mobility and mental well-being in the lower class

destination group and a negative relationship between downward mo

bility and mental well-being for the lower class of destination.

This result suggests to us that the argument that age specific

or stage of life cycle may have some merits. But then again it

seems to apply only to a very specific and limited situation. Per

haps, further age group comparisons of mobility's effect on mental

well-being such as age groups of 20 to 34, 35 to 55 and 55 and above,

may reveal very different findings.

38

It became evident in the multiple regression analysis that

social stability and race are strongly related to mental well-being.

With only a few exceptions, these were the two variables which

accounted for most of the variance and have the greatest impact on

the dependent variable, mental well-being. Closer examination of

the variable social stability reveals that some of its components

have been used as indicators of social integration, for example,

membership in voluntary organizations. Several of the studies

cited in the review of literature operationalized on individual's

mental state according to his level of social integration. Having

differentiated between social stability and mental well-being in this

study may account for some of the differing findings.

Race, also strongly related to mental well-being, is a typically

neglected variable. As noted earlier, it is not uncommon to find

that a researcher has controlled for the effects of race by exam

ining whites exclusively or blacks exclusively. The inclusion of

race in future studies could potentially alter previously held con

ceptions about the relationship between mental well-being and other

factors.

CONCLUSION

This study sought to test the relationship between social mo

bility and mental well-being. The findings based on our analyses

are not clearly supportive of previously reviewed works in a general

way. The differences, of course, may be attributable to a number of

39

things. Primarily, as noted earlier, the measures of mobility and

mental well-being vary from study to study. The measure of mental

well-being is highly dependent on the assumption that life satisfac

tion and happiness are indicators of mental states. Also, the mo

bility measure used does not always accurately reflect one's social

position. High occupational prestige is not necessarily accompanied

by high income - take the college professor as an example. According

to the class groupings utilized here, a college professor falls within

the upper class of destination, yet his income is more in keeping

with a middle class status. Mobility scores considering income may

reflect dissimilar findings.

In conclusion, let us state in a very simple and straightforward

fashion, hypotheses that are supportive of our general concern and

hypotheses that are clearly contrary to our expectations. Table 21

is the summary of the results reported below.

Hypotheses Supported

1) Individuals experiencing social mobility may have problems related to mental well-being as a result of difficulties in adjusting to a new social position.

2) Individuals experiencing social mobility into the middle class of destination are more likely than their counterparts to have mental well-being related problems.

3) The relationship between social mobility into the middle class of destination and mental well-being persists even when the effects of control variables are taken into account.

4) Downward mobility is not significantly related to mental well-being.

40

Hypotheses Contradicted

1) Individuals experiencing upward mobility are more likely than individuals experiencing downward mobility to maintain sound mental well-being.

2) The degree of mobility is not directly related to an individual's mental well-being.

ENDNOTES

1. The initial factor analysis also included job satisfation and two

principal factors were extracted. Since job satisfaction loaded

heavily on the second factor and all other variables loaded heavily

on the first factor, job satisfaction was removed from the list of

variables. A second factor analysis was executed. The second

yielded a single factor. It is this factor that is used in this

study.

2. Only never married females and currently married females are in

cluded in this study. Occupational prestige of widowed, separated

or divorced women is difficult to determine, so they were excluded

from the analysis.

3. Negative values, indicating downward mobility were multiplied by

-1, so that the distance of -1 would be analyzed as less than the

distance of -25.

4. The actual coding is 1 = a large or medium size central city;

2 = a small city; 3 = a suburb of a large or medium size central city;

4 = any other residential area.

5. This division was used so as to obtain approximately the same

number of respondents in the upper and lower categories and a large

number of respondents in the middle category.

6. Class designation is very loosely in terms of occupational prestige,

7. The possible overlap of these variables is recognized. However,

social stability does measure a social state and mental well-being

a psychological state. Therefore, they are not identical.

41

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APPENDIX

48

TABLE 1

MENTAL WELL-BEING: A RESULT OF THE FACTOR ANALYSIS

Variable Factor Communality

Satcity: satisfaction with the

place in which one

0.47204 0.26388

lives

Sathobby: satisfaction with one's 0.56260 0.28783

hobbies

Satfmd: satisfaction with one's 0.69840 0.42160

friends

Sathealt: satisfaction with one's 0.48752 0.27340

health

Satfam: satisfaction with one's 0.59279 0.30534

family

Happy

Eigenvalue 1.78039

0.48734 0.22834

49

TABLE 2

SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

SIMPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS

Mental Well-Being

General social mobility 0.019 (N=3246)

Class of Destination

Upper Class -0.081 (N=303)

Middle Class -0.089*(N=1197)

Lower Class 0.016 (N=1339)

^statistically significant at the 0.05 level

50

TABLE 3

UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY, DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY

AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

SIMPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS

Mental Well-Being Upward Mobility Downward Mobility

General Mobility 0.050 (N=1870) 0.032 (N=1694)


Upper Class -0.105 (N=287) -0.200 (N=23)

Middle Class -0.100 (N=974) -0.001 (N=383)

Lower Class 0.059 (N=538) -0.007 (N=871)

*statistically significant at the 0.05 level

51

TABLE 4

GENERAL SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS (N=3246)

Variabl<

Social Stab:

Race

Urbanism

Education

Sex

Mobility

Age

=s

Llity

Beta

0.293

0.086

-0.075

0.049

-0.045

0.020

0.020

F

303.903*

25.251*

18.846*

8.344*

7.270*

1.445

1.390

Cummulative Variance Explained

(R2)

0.094

0.105

0.109*

0.112

0.115

0.115

0.115

Variance Explained By

Each Subsequent Variable

0.094

0.011

0.004

0.003

0.003

0.000 ,

0.000


52

TABLE 5


A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

FOR THE CASE OF

UPPER CLASS OF DESTINATION (N=303)

Variables

Social Stability

Race

Sex

Age

Mobility

Education

Urbanism

Beta

0.187

0.126

-0.066

0.071

0.066

0.027

0.012

F

10.662*

4.499*

1.274

1.507

1.293

0.212

0.041


(R2)

0.031

0.052

0.055

0.059

0.063

0.064

0.064



0.031

0.021

0.003

0.004

0.004

0.001

0.000


53

TABLE 6



FOR THE CASE OF

MIDDLE CLASS OF DESTINATION (N=1197)

Variables

Social Stability

Sex

Mobility

Urbanism

Education

Race

Age

Beta

0.320

-0.087

-0.050

-0.038

0.019

0.101

0.004

F

129.736*

10.190*

3.326*

1.774

0.459

0.149

0.021


(R2)

0.110

0.118

0.121

0.122

0.122

0.123

0.123



0.110

0.008

0.003

0.001

0.000

0.001

0.000


54

TABLE 7



FOR THE CASE OF

LOWER CLASS OF DESTINATION (N=1339)

Variable

Social Stab:

Race

Urbanism

Mobility

Education

Age

ss

ility

Beta

0.282

0.073

-0.064

0.043

0.040

0.017

F

114.037*

7.397*

5.572*

2.647*

2.219*

0.424


(R2)

0.084

0.091

0.094

0.096

0.098

0.099



0.084

0.007

0.003

0.002

0.002

0.001


55

TABLE 8

GENERAL UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING


(N=1870)

Variabl(

Social Stab:

Race

Sex

Education

Urbanism

Mobility

es

ility

Beta

0.256

0.082

0.068

0.063

0.069

0.039

F

156.512*

13.375*

9.711*

7.968*

9.175*

3.019*


(R2)

0.085

0.093

0.098

0.102

0.106

0.107



0.085

0.008

0.005

0.003

0.003

0.001


56

TABLE 9

UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING


FOR THE CASE OF

UPPER CLASS OF DESTINATION (N=287)

Variables

Social Stability

Race

Mobility

Age

Sex

Education

Urbanism

Beta

0.176

0.129

-0.086

0.059

-0.053

-0.024

0.017

F

8.916*

4.441*

2.064*

1.000

0.772

0.157

0.082


(R2)

0.026

0.049

0.055

0.057

0.061

0.061

0.061



0.026

0.023

0.006

0.001

0.004

0.000

0.000


TABLE 10



FOR THE CASE OF

57


Variables

Social Stability

Sex

Mobility

Education

Urbanism

Age

Race

Beta

0.390

-0.080

-0.050

0.060

-0.034

0.038

0.011

F

96.861*

6.821*

2.641*

3.292*

1.184

1.294

0.132


(R2)

0.109

0.115

0.117

0.119

0.120

0.121

0.122



0.109

0.004

0.002

0.002

0.001

0.001

0.001


58

TABLE 11



FOR THE CASE OF


Variables

Social Stability

Urbanism

Mobility

Sex

Education

Race

Beta

0.255

-0.107

-0.087

-0.055

0.040

0.029

F

37.317*

6.247*

4.187*

1.749

0.919

0.456


(R2)

0.068

0.078

0.086

0.089

0.090

0.092



0.068

0.010

0.008

0.003

0.001

0.002


59

TABLE 12

GENERAL DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING


(N=1694)

Variable

Social Stability

Race

Urbanism

Age

Sex

Education

Mobility

Beta

0.310

0.104

-0.077

-0.028

0.034

0.029

0.009

F

176.079*

19.479*

10.434*

1.382

2.159

1.496

0.136


(R2)

0.104

0.119

0.124

0.125

0.127

0.127

0.127



0.104

0.015

0.005

0.001

0.002

0.000

0.000


60

TABLE 13

DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL I-JELL-BEING


FOR THE CASE OF


Variables

Social Stability

Sex

Urbanism

Education

Mobility

Age

Race

Beta

0.300

-0.127

-0.090

-0.060

0.043

0.039

-0.032

F

34.109*

6.776*

2.911*

1.285

0.707

0.566

0.428


(R2)

0.097

0.112

0.120

0.121

0.123

0.124

0.125



0.097

0.015

0.008

0.001

0.002

0.001

0.001


61

TABLE 14

DOWNWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING


FOR THE CASE OF


Variables

Social Stability

Race

Education

Sex

Urbanism

Mobility

Age

Beta

0.311

0.105

0.048

0.030

-0.028

0.014

-0.011

F

90.486*

10.083*

2.190*

0.867

0.713

0.186

0.121


(R2)

0.096

0.109

0.111

0.112

0.113

0.113

0.113



0.096

0.013

0.002

0.001

0.001

0.000

0.000


62

TABLE 15

SIMPLE CORRELATION BETWEEN


AN AGE SPECIFIC ANALYSIS (35-55)

Mental Well-Being

Total Mobility -0.007 (N=1205)



Middle Class -0.032 (N=478)



63

TABLE 16

AGE SPECIFIC SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING


GENERAL MOBILITY

Variable

Social Stability

Race

Sex

Urbanism

Age

Education•

Mobility

Beta

0.276

0.139

0.071

-0.071

-0.028

0.007

-0.003

F

101.699*

24.202*

6.707*

6.327*

1.065

0.056

0.014


(R2)

0.080

0.105

0.110

0.114

0.115

0.115

0.115



0.080

0.025

0.005

0.004

0.001

0.000

0.000


64

TABLE 17


AGE SPECIFIC SOCIAL MOBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING:

UPWARD MOBILITY

Mental Well-Being

General Upward Mobility 0.061 (N=790)



Middle Class -0.032 (N=388)


65

TABLE 18



UPWARD MOBILITY (N=790)

Variabl(

Social Stab:

Race

Sex

Education

Urbanism

Mobility

Age

=s

Llity

Beta

0.287

0.081

-0.107

0.099

-0.048

0.032

0.009

F

66.895*

5.508*

9.572*

7.599*

1.901

0.891

0.071


(R2)

0.092

0.102

0.110

0.118

0.120

0.121

0.121



0.092

0.010

0.008

0.008

0.002

0.001

0.000


66

TABLE 19



DOWNWARD MOBILITY

Mental Well-Being

General Downward Mobility 0.064 (N=527)



Middle Class 0.187*(N=144)



67

TABLE 20



DOWNWARD MOBILITY (N=527)

Variables

Social Stability

Race

Mobility

Sex

Age

Urbanism

Beta

0.338

0.144

0.064

0.025

-0.023

-0.008

F

32.884*

5.833*

1.219

0.181

0.151

0.017


(R2)

0.108

0.128

0.132

0.133

0.133

0.133



0.108

0.020

0.008

0.001

0.000

0.000


68

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