Socioeconomic status and problem attributions: The mediating role of sense of control

Figures & data

Figure 1. Hypothesized mediation model of the relations among SES, sense of control and attributions regarding the cause of the problem and responsibility for the solution.

Table 1. Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD), Reliabilities (α) and Correlations among Study Variables

		M	SD	α	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1	Age	19.23	1.29	–	−.05	−.08	−.23***	−.18**	−.22***	−.08	−.01	−.01	.03	.01	−.01
2	Sex	–	–	–		.05	.05	.06	.07	.24***	.06	.04	.00	−.00	.04
3	Wealth	0.64	0.14	–			.35***	.29***	.71***	.41***	.08	.11*	.06	.03	.11*
4	Mother’s Education	3.60	1.22	–				.54***	.81***	.25***	.16**	.06	.04	.07	.06
5	Father’s Education	3.69	1.28	–					.79**	.32***	.14*	.07	.13*	.10	.10
6	Objective SES	0.00	2.31	.61						.43**	.16**	.11*	.10	.09	.12*
7	Subjective SES	5.58	1.41	–							.26**	.13*	.16**	.13*	.17**
8	Sense of control	0.00	1.46	.81								.17**	.28**	.31**	.35**
9	Locus	4.95	0.94	.66									.66**	.71**	.64**
10	Stability	5.02	0.94	.67										.72**	.66**
11	Controllability	4.72	0.96	.68											.71**
12	Responsibility for solution	5.10	0.91	.73											–

Note. Age and sex are control variables. Wealth, mother’s education, and father’s education comprised the objective SES score. Scores for objectives SES and sense of control were standardized, hence the mean of zero.

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001

Table 2. Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Sense of Control

Variable		b	SE B	β	p
Step 1
	Age	−.005 [-.128, .119]	.062	−.004	.953
	Sex	.179 [-.156, .511]	.172	.060	.294
	R^2	.004
	F	.610			.544
Step 2
	Age	.029 [-.093, .149]	.062	.025	.673
	Sex	−.001 [-.326, .327]	.168	.000	.995
	Subjective SES	.241 [.098, .392]	.073	.233	.004
	Objective SES	.043 [-.027, .119]	.037	.069	.240
	R^2	.004
	∆R^2	.068
	F for ∆R^2	12.283			.0001
	F	6.467			.0001

Note. 95% percentile confidence intervals reported in brackets. Confidence intervals and standard errors based on 1000 bootstrap samples using percentile method. Coefficients significant at the p < .05 level.

Table 3. Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Variables Predicting Attributions

		Locus				Stability				Controllability
Variable		b	SE B	β	p	b	SE B	β	p	b	SE B	β	p
Step 1
	Age	.001 [-.066, .079]	.037	.002	.967	.027 [-.050, .101]	.038	.036	.491	.008 [-.07, .09]	.038	.011	.842
	Sex	.064 [-.132, .294]	.108	.034	.549	.009 [-.200, .213]	.105	.005	.926	−.007 [-.23, .22]	.109	−.004	.944
	R^2	.001				.001				.000
	F	.189			.828	.225			.798	.023			.977
Step 2
	Age	.017 [-.055, .098]	.038	.024	.626	.041 [-.044, .117]	.040	.056	.308	.021 [-.06, .11]	.041	.029	.587
	Sex	.012 [-.193, .240]	.108	.006	.904	−.062 [-.269, .141]	.105	−.032	.546	−.069 [-.29, .15]	.112	−.035	.530
	Subjective SES	.062 [-.034, .156]	.048	.094	.212	.094 [-.005, .186]	.050	.142	.049	.080 [-.02, .19]	.052	.118	.126
	Objective SES	.031 [-.021, .078]	.025	.076	.222	.020 [-.033, .071]	.025	.050	.414	.020 [-.03, .08]	.028	.048	.482
	∆R^2	.019				.027				.020
	F for ∆R^2	3.293			.038	4.648			.010	3.365			.036
	F	1.743			.140	2.439			.047	1.694			.151

Note. 95% percentile confidence intervals reported in brackets. Confidence intervals and standard errors based on 1000 bootstrap samples using percentile method. Coefficients significant at the p < .05 level.

Table 4. Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Attribution of Responsibility for Solution

Variable		b	SE B	β	p
Step 1
	Age	.000 [-.071, .074]	.038	.002	.982
	Sex	.063 [-.124, .258]	.099	.034	.555
	R^2	.001
	F	.192			.825
Step 2
	Age	.017 [-.060, .091]	.039	.023	.698
	Sex	−.011 [-.217, .197]	.103	−.006	.912
	Subjective SES	.096 [.003, .174]	.043	.150	.029
	Objective SES	.023 [-.027, .072]	.026	.058	.383
	∆R^2	.031
	F for ∆R^2	5.384			.005
	F	2.791			.026

Note. 95% percentile confidence intervals reported in brackets. Confidence intervals and standard errors based on 1000 bootstrap samples using percentile method. Coefficients significant at the p < .05 level.

Figure 2. Objective SES predict attribution for the locus of the problem cause through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 3. Objective SES predict attribution for the perceived stability of the problem cause through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 4. Objective SES predict attribution for the perceived controllability of the problem cause through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 5. Objective SES predict attribution for the perceived responsibility for the solution through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 6. Subjective SES predict attribution for the locus of the problem cause through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 7. Subjective SES predict attribution for the perceived stability of the problem cause through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 8. Subjective SES predict attribution for the perceived controllability of the problem cause through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05.

Figure 9. Subjective SES predict attribution for the perceived responsibility for the solution through sense of control. Coefficients are shown with standard error in parentheses. Percentile bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals for the direct effect are indicated in brackets. Coefficients are significant if p < .05