Description
The Impact of Socio-economic Status on Endocrine Reactivity in Social DefeatAbstract:
At population level, lower socio-economic status (SES) is associated with poorer health and reduced opportunities to fully participate in society. Reasons for this exist within a latticework of socio-cultural, economic, political, and biological influences. The social gradient in health robustly illustrates how inequalities and social rank predict distribution of chronic disease, with subordination linked to limited resources and lack of control, rather than from health behaviours or access to medical care. However, specific biopsychosocial mechanisms through which status affects health outcomes are not empirically tested. By exploring endocrine reactivity in response to an experimental social defeat task, cognitive moderators of this link (threat and challenge cognitions), and the relationships of key psychosocial factors to endocrine reactivity, advances research of health inequalities. The results demonstrate that the overall circulating testosterone (T) levels were higher in the high SES compared to low SES group in experimental conditions of success and defeat. Participants also displayed higher overall levels of circulating cortisol (C) levels compared against a comprehensive time-matched baseline. Moreover, the study suggests that T potentially plays an important role in the neuroendocrine reactivity that affects behavioural implications of social defeat/victory, before situating these within the broader contextual framework of socio-economic disadvantage (SED).
| Period | May 2024 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Aarhus , DenmarkShow on map |