Personal psychological resources and health inequalities: the strength of the buffer effect in European countries
Abstract
The article is devoted to the problem of the impact of personal psychological resources on social inequality in health. In developed countries, according to previous studies, such an impact is described in terms of the buffer effect: psychological resources are more conducive to maintaining good health in lower social strata, so that inequalities become less pronounced. At the same time, it is unclear whether the buffering effect is a universal mechanism for smoothing out health inequalities or is valid only in specific societal contexts of these countries. This paper analyzes the ESS 2012 data - representative surveys conducted in 27 countries, including Russia, as well as World Bank, WHO and ILO statistics and other analytical information about the economy, social welfare and culture of these countries. The application of statistical methods of two-level hierarchical modeling (linear and logistic) has shown that the state of people’s health (of their assessment of it and of the everyday problems caused by chronic disease) in all countries is socially stratified - it clearly deteriorates with decreasing social status. And in all of them psychological resources (control over life, autonomy and optimism) play an important role in maintaining health, contributing to its improvement in all social layers. The results confirm the existence of a buffer effect, the strength of which, however, depends upon societal context. The reduction of status inequalities thanks to psychological reserve capacity usually takes place in affluent societies – European countries, in which many people live without financial difficulties. In these countries, psychological reserves have particularly strong beneficial effects on the health of individuals with low status, helping them to overcome the negative emotions and stress caused by relative deprivation.
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