Social status and coping: An exploration of the mediating role of beliefs

The impact of social status on health and health behavior is a well-documented phenomenon. Thus, it is surprising how few studies have focused on the social determinants of coping, which is considered an important mediating concept in explaining the effect of stress on health. To explore the relationship between social status and coping, a model is proposed in which its relationship is mediated by stress coping beliefs. Beliefs are viewed as a variable that can bridge the conceptual gap between sociological variables, such as social status, and psychological variables, like coping. Data from a community study (n = 302) on the suggested relationship support this model: causal modelling shows that the impact of social status on coping behavior is best explained by assuming that its influence is mediated bl beliefs.