Subjective Socioeconomic Status Moderates Self-Esteem Reactivity to Daily Stressor Exposure: Evidence From a Daily Diary Approach

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Daily self-esteem daily stressor exposure subjective socioeconomic status daily diary multilevel modelling

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