Low subjective social status is associated with daily selection of fewer healthy foods and more high-fat/high sugar foods

Danny Rahal; Jessica J Chiang; Virginia W Huynh; Julienne E Bower; Heather McCreath; Andrew J Fuligni

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2022.106338

Low subjective social status is associated with daily selection of fewer healthy foods and more high-fat/high sugar foods

Appetite. 2023 Jan 1:180:106338. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106338. Epub 2022 Oct 7.

Authors

Danny Rahal¹, Jessica J Chiang², Virginia W Huynh³, Julienne E Bower⁴, Heather McCreath⁵, Andrew J Fuligni⁴

Affiliations

¹ Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA. Electronic address: rahal@psu.edu.
² Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
³ Department of Child and Adolescent Development, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Division of Geriatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Socioeconomic status has been related to poorer eating behaviors, potentially due to feeling of lower status relative to peers. Despite experimental evidence that temporarily feeling of lower status can contribute to greater caloric intake, it remains unclear how feeling of lower social status relate to eating behavior in daily life. This study aimed to test whether lower subjective social status (SSS)-the feeling of having relatively lower social status-in American society and relative to college peers were related to daily food selection. A sample of 131 young adults (Mage = 20.3, SD = 0.8; 60% female; 46% Latinos; 34% European American; 15% Asian American; 5% of other ethnicities) reported their SSS in society and in college and completed 15 daily reports regarding the number of daily servings they had of fruits, vegetables, fried foods, fast foods, desserts, and sugary drinks. Multilevel models with days nested within individuals were used to test whether low SSS in society or college related to daily food intake. Next, we examined whether associations were driven by young adults' perceived stress and daily stressors. Analyses controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, family and personal income, and parents' education to test the unique associations between subjective status and food intake. Whereas SSS in society was not related to food intake, young adults with lower SSS in their college consumed fewer daily servings of healthy foods and more daily servings of high-fat/high-sugar foods. Although lower college SSS was related to greater perceived stress, perceived stress and daily stressors were consistently unrelated to daily food intake. Findings suggested that lower SSS in local environments (e.g., college) may impact young adults' daily food choices through processes beyond heightened stress.

Keywords: Daily servings; Food servings; Meals; Socioeconomic status; Subjective social status.

MeSH terms

Female
Humans
Male
Social Class*
Social Status*
Sugars
Universities

Substances

Sugars

Abstract

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding