Subjective socioeconomic status moderates self-esteem reactivity to daily stressor exposure: Evidence from a daily diary approach

• Main Authors: CHUA, Yi Jing, MAJEED, Nadyanna M., LUA, Verity Yu Qing, CHENG, Chi-ying, HARTANTO, Andree
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Daily self-esteem; daily stressor exposure; subjective socioeconomic status; daily diary; multilevel modelling; Applied Behavior Analysis; Personality and Social Contexts; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3829; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5087/viewcontent/Subjective_Socioeconomic_Status_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Research on self-esteem reactivity has demonstrated that self-esteem fluctuates in response to daily stressor exposure, and the strength of this relationship varies between individuals. Drawing upon the positive link between objective socioeconomic status (SES) and self-esteem, how subjective SES influences self-esteem reactivity to daily stressor exposure was explored. Using a 7-day daily diary study, the current study (N-participants = 243, N-days = 1651) adopted a multilevel analysis to demonstrate that subjective SES attenuated the within-person association between daily stressor exposure and daily self-esteem, even after controlling for demographics and objective indicators of SES. The interactions were also consistent across social stressors and non-social stressors. The findings provide evidence supporting the protective role of subjective SES in self-esteem reactivity to daily stressor exposure.