Other Indicators of Socio-economic Position

Question 1

List key markers of socio-economic position on an individual level.

Answer 1

• Wealth – reflects accumulation of lifetime advantage /
  disadvantage, i.e. includes income AND assets such as property, cars, investments
• Housing tenure, e.g. renting / owning / social housing
• Housing conditions, e.g. state of repair, overcrowding, heating, damp
• Household amenities, e.g. garden, car, computer, fridge, washing machine
• Self-rated (subjective) measures, e.g. “How well are you managing financially?”

Question 2

List measures socio-economic position on an ecological/area-level.

Answer 2

• Aggregated from individual level data, e.g. census or other administrative data
• Characterise areas on a continuum from deprived to affluent
• Used as a proxy for the SEP of the people living in those areas
• Used at different levels from small neighbourhoods to whole countries

Question 3

What are the problems with ecological/area-level measures?

Answer 3

• Very rich people and very poor people may live in the same area

Question 4

Define ‘social mobility’.

Answer 4

Ability of individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to move up in the world – “equality of opportunity”.

Question 5

Define ‘intergenerational social mobility’.

Answer 5

The relationship between the socio-economic status of parents and the status their children will attain as adults.

Question 6

List features of social mobility.

Answer 6

• Countries with higher income inequality tend to have
  lower social mobility.
• Education = key link between social origins and social
  class destinations
• Social mobility trajectories shown to be related to a
  range of different health outcomes