Associations among socioeconomic status, perceived neighborhood control, perceived individual control, and self-reported health

Recent research has suggested that perceived control and a person's perceptions of their neighborhood environment may mediate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. This cross-sectional study assessed whether perceptions of informal social control mediated the association between SES and self-reported health, and if these two constructs represented distinct mechanisms linking SES with self-reported health. The sample consisted of 869 adults residing in 300 census tracts in Montreal, Canada. Multilevel methods were used to assess the associations among self-reported health, SES, perceived control, and perceived informal social control adjusting for sociodemographic variables. Perceived control (mediation estimate=-0.06,p<.001) and perceived informal social control (mediation estimate=-0.05, p<.05) partially mediated the association between SES and self-reported health. Perceived control did not mediate the association of perceived informal social control with self-reported health. Perceived informal social control may act alongside but distinct from perceived control as a mechanism linking SES to self-reported health.