Although substantial research indicates that considerations about status can lead to anxiety and other negative outcomes, a valid measure of the importance individuals attribute to status is lacking. This paper introduces the Status Importance Scale (SIS), a mono-factorial 10-item self-report questionnaire that quantifies how important a person deems status to be. Five studies validate the scale showing that it has excellent internal reliability and acceptable test-retest reliability, it correlates with several related measures (supporting convergent validity), it shows little correlation with theoretically unrelated constructs (supporting discriminant validity), it is the best predictor of conspicuous consumption compared with other potential candidates (supporting concurrent validity), and it can help predicting which activities one gives importance to (further supporting concurrent validity). Finally, as hypothesized by previous literature, the last study reveals that the SIS can predict status anxiety. The SIS can contribute to research regarding important phenomena such as the detrimental psychological effects of income inequality.

Inequality in hierarchical social status, especially among socially excluded children, profoundly affects preadolescents. Historically viewed through a lens of psychopathology and moral deficiencies, it challenges the education system\'s approaches and interventions. This article introduces a developmental perspective, highlighting the hierarchical social status\' role in shaping classroom cohesion, strength, and distinctiveness. This study\'s phenomenological, qualitative methodology aimed to gain preliminary insight into the children\'s perspectives. Drawing from 12 focus group discussions involving 140 latency-age (grade 5) children in Israel, it uniquely reveals the dynamic nature of hierarchical social status influenced by children\'s connections with the group. This dynamism promotes group unity, strengthens bonds, and prioritizes collective concerns, contributing to the development of a \"social self\" in the latency phase. Beyond theory, this study proposes innovative interventions to address social status disparities.

This study explored the predictions of and relationships between background, social status, and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in cyberbullying among 2430 secondary school students from schools affiliated with Thailand\'s Office of the Basic Education Commission. The stratified sampling method was used along with the Cyberbullying Questionnaire, Sociometric Status Questionnaire, Perceived Popularity Questionnaire, and ICT Use Questionnaire and data were collected through the CU Smart Sociometry web application and Google Forms. Data analysis was conducted to determine 1) demographic data using descriptive statistics; 2) correlation analysis of students\' backgrounds, sociometric status, and ICT use against cyberbullying using the chi-square test; and 3) variables that predict cyberbullying among secondary school students using multinomial logistic regression. Results showed a link between cyberbullying and secondary school students\' backgrounds, social status, and ICT use. Students with different backgrounds (sex and academic performance), social statuses (social preference and perceived popularity), and ICT use partook in different cyberbullying roles. Independent variables of sex, academic performance, social preference, perceived popularity, and ICT use all predicted cyberbullying by 33.3 % with statistical significance. Male students were noted to have a higher likelihood of being cyberbullies than female students, whereas female students were more likely to be cybervictims and bystanders. Moreover, students with low academic performance were more likely to be cyberbullies and cybervictims than high-performing students, with rejected students having the highest likelihood of being cyberbullies. Interestingly, the higher a student\'s popularity, the higher was their likelihood of being cyberbullies. Finally, cyberbullies had the highest average daily internet use, and students who had never had their guardians monitor their internet usage were more likely to be cyberbullies; students with moderate and good social media behavior were mostly bystanders.

BACKGROUND: Social anxiety (SA) is characterized by concerns about the expected occurrence (probability) and anticipated distress (cost) of social threats. Unclear is whether SA correlates specifically with biased expectations of belongingness or status threats.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to discern if SA is uniquely tied to biased expectancies of either belongingness or status threats.
METHODS: We assessed 757 participants\' perceptions of exclusion and put-down scenarios, analysing associations between SA and threat perceptions.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the status-sensitivity hypothesis, suggesting individuals with high SA are particularly attuned to the perceived cost of status threats, potentially informing treatment approaches.
CONCLUSIONS: Understanding SA\'s link to status concerns enhances therapeutic strategies, emphasizing the need to address status-related situations, cognitions, and emotions in interventions.

Autistic people frequently experience negative judgements from non-autistic people, often fuelled by misconceptions that autistic people lack empathy. Understanding responses to negative social judgement among autistic people is crucial because of the potential negative impact on wellbeing and future interactions. We investigated the role of autistic traits, social anxiety, and depression on behavioural indices of social rejection in 20 autistic (AUT; 11 males) and 40 non-autistic (N-AUT; 21 males) university students. Participants completed the Social Judgement Task (SJT) where they predicted whether they were liked by another person, then received feedback on whether those evaluations were correct. Participants also completed an Age Judgement Task (AJT) where they estimated the age of the pictured person. The AUT group had lower positive expectation scores, meaning less tendency to predict being liked. Across the whole sample, higher social anxiety predicted greater tendency to anticipate rejection from others, not autistic traits. These findings suggest early experiences of rejection might lead to a negative self-bias in autistic people and emphasise the importance of using a transdiagnostic approach by showing that social anxiety rather than autistic traits is associated with expectation of social rejection.

Although the relationship between subjective social status and depression in university students has been well-established, this association could be seen as a spurious one. Previous studies have shown that key variables like financial resources and age could play key roles in explaining the variances in social status and mental health outcomes. In this research, we assessed the complex interrelationships between subjective social status, financial resources at their disposal and depressive symptoms among university students within their young and middle adulthood stages.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a university in Ghana to sample 1134 university students through accidental sampling. The McArthur Scale and WHO-5 Well-being measure were used for the data collection.
The results revealed that higher levels of subjective social status were associated with lower levels of depression. It was further found that the interaction between students\' pocket money and age played unique roles in the relationship between subjective social status and depression.
The study findings call on stakeholders in education to explore funding opportunities and to examine ways of empowering parents (financially) to adequately support the students. Health educationists and promoters, including psychologists, school counsellors and parents could compliment these efforts by helping to train and empower students through self-regulation or management skills to help improve their well-being. Continuous efforts are required to improve the financial status and mental health of students.

This study identifies the health effect of rising housing prices on individual physical health using the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data. Exploiting exogenous housing prices, I find that rising housing prices adversely affect physical health status. Heterogeneity analyses yield interesting findings. First, the adverse effects of high housing prices are pronounced in the group owning only one house. Second, significant effects of housing prices on health for the group aged 20 to 45 are observed, with no effects for the elderly group above 45. Third, males are more sensitive to high housing prices due to the intensified competition and traditional gender norm in marriage markets. I also further investigate the channel through which housing prices affect individual physical health. The findings indicate that rising housing prices can damage individual physical health via lowering social status, reducing physical exercise time and increasing mental health risk.

Individualized social niches arise in social groups, resulting in divergent social behavior profiles among group members. During sensitive life phases, the individualized social niche can profoundly impact the development of social behavior and associated phenotypes such as hormone (e.g. cortisol) concentrations. Focusing on adolescence, we investigated the relationship between the individualized social niche, social behavior, and cortisol concentrations (baseline and responsiveness) in female guinea pigs. Females were pair-housed in early adolescence (initial social pair formation), and a social niche transition was induced after six weeks by replacing the partner with either a larger or smaller female. Regarding social behavior, dominance status was associated with aggression in both the initial social pairs and after the social niche transition, and the results suggest that aggression was rapidly and completely reshaped after the social niche transition. Meanwhile, submissive behavior was rapidly reshaped after the social niche transition, but this was incomplete. The dominance status attained in the initial social pair affected the extent of submissive behavior after the social niche transition, and this effect was still detected three weeks after the social niche transition. Regarding cortisol concentrations, higher baseline cortisol concentrations were measured in dominant females in the initial social pairs. After the social niche transition, cortisol responsiveness significantly increased for the females paired with a larger, older female relative to those paired with a smaller, younger female. These findings demonstrate that the social niche during adolescence plays a significant role in shaping behavior and hormone concentrations in females.

UNASSIGNED: Health literacy (HL) encompasses knowledge and skills for dealing critically and confidently with health information in individual and social contexts. Current studies show that a high proportion of children and adolescents have limited health literacy, depending on aspects of their social background. Health literacy is considered an important factor influencing health. Little is known about the development of health literacy over time and its connection with psychosomatic complaints in young people.
UNASSIGNED: Based on the results of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, this article focusses on the level of HL in 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old students (N = 6,475) over time and taking social differences into account. Finally, the relationship between HL and psychosomatic complaints is analysed. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were carried out for this purpose.
UNASSIGNED: At 24.4 %, slightly more students have low HL in 2022 than in 2017/18 (21.4 %). There are differences in HL according to gender, age, type of school, and family affluence. Low HL is associated with a high psychosomatic burden.
UNASSIGNED: The results highlight the need for target group-specific measures to promote young people\'s HL, which address individual and organisational aspects of HL.

In mammalian societies, dominance hierarchies translate into inequalities in health, reproductive performance and survival. DNA methylation is thought to mediate the effects of social status on gene expression and phenotypic outcomes, yet a study of social status-specific DNA methylation profiles in different age classes in a wild social mammal is missing. We tested for social status signatures in DNA methylation profiles in wild female spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), cubs and adults, using non-invasively collected gut epithelium samples. In spotted hyena clans, female social status influences access to resources, foraging behavior, health, reproductive performance and survival. We identified 149 differentially methylated regions between 42 high- and low-ranking female spotted hyenas (cubs and adults). Differentially methylated genes were associated with energy conversion, immune function, glutamate receptor signalling and ion transport. Our results provide evidence that socio-environmental inequalities are reflected at the molecular level in cubs and adults in a wild social mammal.