Background: The public health and economic literature on individual-level social determinants of health and well-being has largely focused on the role of income. However, it is not clear whether an individual’s income relates to their health and well-being due to material or psychosocial factors. The psychological literature on individual-level social determinants of health and well-being has been concerned with the role of psychosocial factors such as social comparisons and personality variables. However, the use of personality measures as predictors of health and well-being has been limited due to traditional perspectives that personality traits are stable over time. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to advance the understanding of individual-level predictors of health and well-being in these disciplines. Methods: Large scale cohort data were utilised for the analyses in this thesis. Marginal and conditional regression models were used to i) assess whether psychosocial factors associated with income predicted health better than material factors, and ii) determine the specification which best represented the psychosocial influence of income on health. Conditional models were also used to compare the predictive value of changes in income and changes in personality traits for a range of well-being outcomes. Structural equation models examined the nature of the association between changes in personality traits and changes in well-being. Results: Regression models and goodness of fit statistics indicated that psychosocial factors associated with income, specifically an individual’s rank within a comparison group, predicted health better than material factors. Conditional models further indicated that other psychosocial factors such as an individual’s personality traits explained more variation in well-being outcomes than changes in income. Structural equation models indicated that observed changes in personality traits were not due to measurement error and that change in the personality trait neuroticism may be causally associated with changes in well-being. Conclusions: The findings here integrate and advance the public health, economic and psychological literature on individual-level predictors of health and well-being, through identifying a psychological pathway through which income relates to health and by determining the relative contribution of economic and psychological factors such as personality trait change on health and well-being outcomes. Furthermore, the nature of the association between personality traits and well-being is explored.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:677755 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Osafo Hounkpatin, Hilda |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/individuallevel-predictors-of-health-and-wellbeing-an-integration-of-the-social-sciences(92d88c3a-09ed-4c08-9d64-0ebcf6df22fb).html |
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