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CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CAPITALS AS FACTORS IN SELF-RATED HEALTH

stmm. 2022 (1): 83-105

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2022.01.083

PAVLO SEREDA, MA in Sociology (National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, 2021), Postgraduate Student at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (8/5 Volosska St., Build. 4, Kyiv, 04655)

p.sereda@ukma.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1896-496X

KATERYNA MALTSEVA, Candidate of Sciences in Philosophy (2003), PhD in Anthropology (2010), Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. Affiliated Research Fellow (University of Connecticut, USA) (8/5 Volosska St., Build. 4, Kyiv, 04655)

maltsevaKS@ukma.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6540-8734

The present-day epidemiological situation has once again drawn attention of the scientific community and policy makers to the importance of understanding of the social sources of biological risks. During the past few decades the empirical research into heath disparities has revealed the complex links existing between the socioeconomic status of an individual and his or her health. There are several theoretical models that explain health disparities chiefly focusing on various facets of the socioeconomic status and their effects on health. Those models point to the unequal distribution of health across different groups within a population, but they remain rather limited in terms of accounting for the mechanisms of its maintenance. Although the idea of the effects of socioeconomic status on health is not new and dates back at least as far as 19th c. social medicine, the body of knowledge regarding the social patterns of health, disease and mortality has increased considerably since then. Burgeoning new approaches to health disparities as well as incorporation of data from the epidemiological, medical, genetic and similar connected disciplines have enriched the sociological knowledge and changed the very conceptualization of health. The methodological means of assessing the social factors in health should be enhanced accordingly. The present study contributes to this empirical literature. The aim of the present study was to explore the factor of the cultural and social capitals in self-rated health status among the adult Ukrainians. During 2020–2021 the authors have conducted a two-phase mixed methods study employing the results of semi-structured interviews (n = 10) to develop a survey instrument (n = 156). The results pointed to the gradual data structure in self-rated health based on the cultural capital criterion. Individuals who were more knowledgeable in terms of healthy lifestyle habits and capable of translating this knowledge into practice adhering to it in their lifestyle, also had higher scores on all other forms of capital. This finding supports the notion that health is linked to the cultural taste which forms the status distinctions. As for the mechanisms of the interaction of capitals, it was found that cultural capital in the domain of health is connected to the variables of the cultural capital in the domain of diet and healthy habits, as well as with the social support aspect of the social capital. Cultural capital variables are intercorrelated among themselves, as well as with such aspects of social capital as social support and useful contact networks. Social capital emerged as a multidimensional construct with multiple interrelated compounds. The relationship between social and cultural capitals was mediated via social support availability.

Keywords: self-rated heath, social determinants of health, gradient, theory of capitals, Pierre Bourdieu, quantitative methods.

References

Abel, T. (2007). Cultural capital in health promotion. In: D.V. McQueen, I. Kickbusch, L. Potvin, J.M. Pelikan, L. Balbo, T. Abel (Eds.), Health and Modernity: The Role of Theory in Health Promotion (pp. 43–73). New York, NY: Springer.

Abel, T. (2008). Cultural capital and social inequality in health. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 62 (7), e13–e13.

Abel, T., Frohlich, K. (2012). Capitals and capabilities: Linking structure and agency to reduce health inequalities. Social Science & Medicine, 74 (2), 236–244.

Bartscher, A.K., Seitz, S., Siegloch, S., Slotwinski, M., Wehrhцfer, N. (2021). Social capital and the spread of COVID-19: Insights from European countries. Journal of Health Economics, 80, 10253 (1–15).

Blasius, J., Friedrichs, J. (2008). Lifestyles in distressed neighborhoods: A test of Bourdieu’s “taste of necessity” hypothesis. Poetics, 36(1), 24–44.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Burt, R. (2002). The social capital of structural holes. The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field, 148 (90), 122.

Burt, R. (2004). Structural holes and good ideas. American Journal of Sociology, 110 (2), 349–399.

Carpiano, R.M., Link, B.G., Phelan, J.C. (2008). Social inequality and health: future directions for the fundamental cause explanation. In: A. Lareau, D. Conley (Eds.), Social Class: How Does It Work (pp. 232–263). New York, NY: Sage Foundation.

Cockerham, W.C. (2005). Health lifestyle theory and the convergence of agency and structure. Journal of health and social behavior, 46 (1), 51–67.

Cockerham, W. (2013). Bourdieu and an update of health lifestyle theory. In: Medical Sociology on the Move: New Directions in Theory (pp.127–154). New York, NY: Springer.

Coleman, J. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 95–120.

Gagne, T., Frohlich, K., Abel, T. (2015). Cultural capital and smoking in young adults: applying new indicators to explore social inequalities in health behaviour. The European Journal of Public Health, 25 (5), 818–823. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckv069

Huber, M., Knottnerus, J., Green L., et al (2011). How should we define health? BMJ, 343: d4163. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d416

Mackenbach, J.P. (2012). The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: the explanation of a paradox. Social Science & Medicine, 75 (4), 761–769.

Nora, A. (2004). The Role of Habitus and Cultural Capital in Choosing a College, Transitioning From High School to Higher Education, and Persisting in College Among Minority and Nonminority Students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 3 (2), 180–208. DOI: 10.1177/1538192704263189

Kamphuis, C., Jansen, T., Mackenbach, J., Van Lenthe, J. (2015). Bourdieu’s cultural capital in relation to food choices: a systematic review of cultural capital indicators and an empirical proof of concept. PloS One, 10 (8), e0130695.

Kawachi, I., Berkman, L. (2014). Social capital, social cohesion, and health. Social Epidemiology, 2, 290–319.

Lin, N. (2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Newton, K. (2001). Trust, social capital, civil society, and democracy. International Political Science Review, 22 (2), 201–214.

Pampel, F., Krueger, P., Denney, J. (2010). Socioeconomic disparities in health behaviors. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 349–370.

Pinxten, W., Lievens, J. (2014). The importance of economic, social and cultural capital in understanding health inequalities: using a Bourdieu-based approach in research on physical and mental health perceptions. Sociology of Health & Illness, 36 (7), 1095–1110.

Schreiber, J., Nora, A., Stage, F., Barlow, E., King, J. (2006). Reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: A review. The Journal of educational research, 99 (6), 323–338.

Song, L. (2013). Social Capital and Health. In: Cockerham W. (Ed/), Medical Sociology on the Move. S.l.: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6193-3_12

Sweet, D., Byng, R., Webber, M., et al (2017). Personal well-being networks, social capital and severe mental illness: exploratory study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 212 (5), 308–317.

Tulin, M., Smith, S. (2020). Poverty and mental health among migrants: When is ingroup exposure more protective than social ties? SSM — Population Health, 11, 100599 (1–8). DOI:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100599

Turrell, G., Kavanagh, A.M. (2006). Socio-economic pathways to diet: modelling the association between socio-economic position and food purchasing behaviour. Public Health Nutrition, 9 (3), 375–383.

Veenstra, G. (2018). Infusing fundamental cause theory with features of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 46(1), 49–52. DOI: org/10.1177/1403494817748253

Veenstra, G., Abel, T. (2019). Capital interplays and social inequalities in health. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 47 (6), 631–634.

Weston, R. (2006). A Brief Guide to Structural Equation Modeling. The Counseling Psychologist, 34 (5), 719–751. DOI: 10.1177/0011000006286345

Wilkinson, R., Pickett, K. (2006). Income inequality and population health: a review and explanation of the evidence. Social Science & Medicine, 62 (7), 1768–1784.

Wiltshire, G., Lee, J., Williams, O. (2019). Understanding the reproduction of health inequalities: Physical activity, social class and Bourdieu’s habitus. Sport, Education and Society, 24 (3), 226–240.

World Health Organization (1995). Constitution of the world health organization. Retreived from: https://www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf

World Health Organization (2009). Milestones in health promotion: statements from global conferences. Retreived from: https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/Milestones_Health_Promotion_05022010.pdf

Xia, Y., Yang, Y. (2019). RMSEA, CFI, and TLI in structural equation modeling with ordered categorical data: The story they tell depends on the estimation methods. Behavior Research Methods, 51 (1), 409–428.

Received 09.11.2021

CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CAPITALS AS FACTORS IN SELF-RATED HEALTH

stmm. 2022 (1): 83-105

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2022.01.083

PAVLO SEREDA, MA in Sociology (National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, 2021), Postgraduate Student at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (8/5 Volosska St., Build. 4, Kyiv, 04655)

p.sereda@ukma.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1896-496X

KATERYNA MALTSEVA, Candidate of Sciences in Philosophy (2003), PhD in Anthropology (2010), Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. Affiliated Research Fellow (University of Connecticut, USA) (8/5 Volosska St., Build. 4, Kyiv, 04655)

maltsevaKS@ukma.edu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6540-8734

The present-day epidemiological situation has once again drawn attention of the scientific community and policy makers to the importance of understanding of the social sources of biological risks. During the past few decades the empirical research into heath disparities has revealed the complex links existing between the socioeconomic status of an individual and his or her health. There are several theoretical models that explain health disparities chiefly focusing on various facets of the socioeconomic status and their effects on health. Those models point to the unequal distribution of health across different groups within a population, but they remain rather limited in terms of accounting for the mechanisms of its maintenance. Although the idea of the effects of socioeconomic status on health is not new and dates back at least as far as 19th c. social medicine, the body of knowledge regarding the social patterns of health, disease and mortality has increased considerably since then. Burgeoning new approaches to health disparities as well as incorporation of data from the epidemiological, medical, genetic and similar connected disciplines have enriched the sociological knowledge and changed the very conceptualization of health. The methodological means of assessing the social factors in health should be enhanced accordingly. The present study contributes to this empirical literature. The aim of the present study was to explore the factor of the cultural and social capitals in self-rated health status among the adult Ukrainians. During 2020–2021 the authors have conducted a two-phase mixed methods study employing the results of semi-structured interviews (n = 10) to develop a survey instrument (n = 156). The results pointed to the gradual data structure in self-rated health based on the cultural capital criterion. Individuals who were more knowledgeable in terms of healthy lifestyle habits and capable of translating this knowledge into practice adhering to it in their lifestyle, also had higher scores on all other forms of capital. This finding supports the notion that health is linked to the cultural taste which forms the status distinctions. As for the mechanisms of the interaction of capitals, it was found that cultural capital in the domain of health is connected to the variables of the cultural capital in the domain of diet and healthy habits, as well as with the social support aspect of the social capital. Cultural capital variables are intercorrelated among themselves, as well as with such aspects of social capital as social support and useful contact networks. Social capital emerged as a multidimensional construct with multiple interrelated compounds. The relationship between social and cultural capitals was mediated via social support availability.

Keywords: self-rated heath, social determinants of health, gradient, theory of capitals, Pierre Bourdieu, quantitative methods.

References

Abel, T. (2007). Cultural capital in health promotion. In: D.V. McQueen, I. Kickbusch, L. Potvin, J.M. Pelikan, L. Balbo, T. Abel (Eds.), Health and Modernity: The Role of Theory in Health Promotion (pp. 43–73). New York, NY: Springer.

Abel, T. (2008). Cultural capital and social inequality in health. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 62 (7), e13–e13.

Abel, T., Frohlich, K. (2012). Capitals and capabilities: Linking structure and agency to reduce health inequalities. Social Science & Medicine, 74 (2), 236–244.

Bartscher, A.K., Seitz, S., Siegloch, S., Slotwinski, M., Wehrhцfer, N. (2021). Social capital and the spread of COVID-19: Insights from European countries. Journal of Health Economics, 80, 10253 (1–15).

Blasius, J., Friedrichs, J. (2008). Lifestyles in distressed neighborhoods: A test of Bourdieu’s “taste of necessity” hypothesis. Poetics, 36(1), 24–44.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Burt, R. (2002). The social capital of structural holes. The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field, 148 (90), 122.

Burt, R. (2004). Structural holes and good ideas. American Journal of Sociology, 110 (2), 349–399.

Carpiano, R.M., Link, B.G., Phelan, J.C. (2008). Social inequality and health: future directions for the fundamental cause explanation. In: A. Lareau, D. Conley (Eds.), Social Class: How Does It Work (pp. 232–263). New York, NY: Sage Foundation.

Cockerham, W.C. (2005). Health lifestyle theory and the convergence of agency and structure. Journal of health and social behavior, 46 (1), 51–67.

Cockerham, W. (2013). Bourdieu and an update of health lifestyle theory. In: Medical Sociology on the Move: New Directions in Theory (pp.127–154). New York, NY: Springer.

Coleman, J. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 95–120.

Gagne, T., Frohlich, K., Abel, T. (2015). Cultural capital and smoking in young adults: applying new indicators to explore social inequalities in health behaviour. The European Journal of Public Health, 25 (5), 818–823. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckv069

Huber, M., Knottnerus, J., Green L., et al (2011). How should we define health? BMJ, 343: d4163. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d416

Mackenbach, J.P. (2012). The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: the explanation of a paradox. Social Science & Medicine, 75 (4), 761–769.

Nora, A. (2004). The Role of Habitus and Cultural Capital in Choosing a College, Transitioning From High School to Higher Education, and Persisting in College Among Minority and Nonminority Students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 3 (2), 180–208. DOI: 10.1177/1538192704263189

Kamphuis, C., Jansen, T., Mackenbach, J., Van Lenthe, J. (2015). Bourdieu’s cultural capital in relation to food choices: a systematic review of cultural capital indicators and an empirical proof of concept. PloS One, 10 (8), e0130695.

Kawachi, I., Berkman, L. (2014). Social capital, social cohesion, and health. Social Epidemiology, 2, 290–319.

Lin, N. (2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Newton, K. (2001). Trust, social capital, civil society, and democracy. International Political Science Review, 22 (2), 201–214.

Pampel, F., Krueger, P., Denney, J. (2010). Socioeconomic disparities in health behaviors. Annual Review of Sociology, 36, 349–370.

Pinxten, W., Lievens, J. (2014). The importance of economic, social and cultural capital in understanding health inequalities: using a Bourdieu-based approach in research on physical and mental health perceptions. Sociology of Health & Illness, 36 (7), 1095–1110.

Schreiber, J., Nora, A., Stage, F., Barlow, E., King, J. (2006). Reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: A review. The Journal of educational research, 99 (6), 323–338.

Song, L. (2013). Social Capital and Health. In: Cockerham W. (Ed/), Medical Sociology on the Move. S.l.: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6193-3_12

Sweet, D., Byng, R., Webber, M., et al (2017). Personal well-being networks, social capital and severe mental illness: exploratory study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 212 (5), 308–317.

Tulin, M., Smith, S. (2020). Poverty and mental health among migrants: When is ingroup exposure more protective than social ties? SSM — Population Health, 11, 100599 (1–8). DOI:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100599

Turrell, G., Kavanagh, A.M. (2006). Socio-economic pathways to diet: modelling the association between socio-economic position and food purchasing behaviour. Public Health Nutrition, 9 (3), 375–383.

Veenstra, G. (2018). Infusing fundamental cause theory with features of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 46(1), 49–52. DOI: org/10.1177/1403494817748253

Veenstra, G., Abel, T. (2019). Capital interplays and social inequalities in health. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 47 (6), 631–634.

Weston, R. (2006). A Brief Guide to Structural Equation Modeling. The Counseling Psychologist, 34 (5), 719–751. DOI: 10.1177/0011000006286345

Wilkinson, R., Pickett, K. (2006). Income inequality and population health: a review and explanation of the evidence. Social Science & Medicine, 62 (7), 1768–1784.

Wiltshire, G., Lee, J., Williams, O. (2019). Understanding the reproduction of health inequalities: Physical activity, social class and Bourdieu’s habitus. Sport, Education and Society, 24 (3), 226–240.

World Health Organization (1995). Constitution of the world health organization. Retreived from: https://www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf

World Health Organization (2009). Milestones in health promotion: statements from global conferences. Retreived from: https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/Milestones_Health_Promotion_05022010.pdf

Xia, Y., Yang, Y. (2019). RMSEA, CFI, and TLI in structural equation modeling with ordered categorical data: The story they tell depends on the estimation methods. Behavior Research Methods, 51 (1), 409–428.

Received 09.11.2021

LATEST PRINTED ISSUE

LATEST FREELY ACCESSIBLE MATERIALS

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