Climbing to a Higher Socioeconomic Does take a Toll on Your Health

Study hard. Work hard. Pay your dues, and anyone can be a success. This is the classic advice imparted to those striving for a better life, a prescription that generally fails to account for other factors that inhibit upward mobility in people who start out life in an economically insecure household.

 

The concept of upward mobility is a cornerstone of the American Dream. For those who achieve that dream, climbing to a higher socioeconomic status can cost decades of time and effort at the very least. It can also take a toll on a person’s health.

 

Based on a multi-year study of nearly 300 rural teenagers transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, researchers found that those who started life in a disadvantaged background but exhibited higher levels of self-control showed reduced depression and less aggression. On the downside, those same individuals also have cells that are “biologically old, relative to their chronological age,” said the media reports. Despite being psychologically resilient, these highly disciplined individuals are suffering physically.

 

Self-control is a strong determinant of success, as the authors write in their paper. It’s essential to setting objectives, following through with plans and resisting temptations on the path to fulfilling those goals. Children who exhibit greater self-control do better in school, earn higher salaries and save more money.

 

Children who start out in life in lower socioeconomic backgrounds face higher barriers to success. The quality of education available to them isn’t as high, and they often spend fewer years in school. Violence, teenage pregnancy and substance abuse are all potential pitfalls on the road to success, and self-discipline can help navigate through those hurdles.

 

Exhibiting the level of discipline needed to succeed and rise out of a low socioeconomic status environment isn’t just psychologically challenging, but also metabolically stressful. Status-seekers beginning in low socioeconomic backgrounds with high levels of self-control faced greater health risks, as evident in levels of obesity, blood pressure and stress hormones among this group. These early indicators could signal much more severe health consequences later in life.

 

Conversely, those with privileged socioeconomic backgrounds as well as high levels of self-control showed both favourable psychological and physiological outcomes.

 

There are a number of potential explanations for this disparity, but none of them is provable at this point. Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may simply have fewer opportunities to take breathers or don’t have the same support networks to ease their burden. Success may bring them into environments where they feel alienated, such as those who might be the first in their families to attend university, triggering stress reactions, which then affect health.