Income and family status

The income of a family has a direct and very strong impact on the status of the family in society. Socioeconomic status (SES) has been very important in the development of our society and it consists of an individual’s work experience, their or their family’s position in the society, parents’ educational qualification and access to various resources. Now, this SES affects not only an individual’s cognitive development but also their neural development, socio-emotional development and their health. High family SES implies that the individuals are more likely to have better memory functions, learning abilities, language skills, literary abilities e.t.c. It is also associated with high academic performance, increased self-regulatory behaviours, and a sense of well-being.

Studies have also found differences in SES on the basis of gender for example it is found that women belonging to families with good parental qualifications have low blood pressure during their developmental phase. Studies have also shown that among high childhood SES, women tend to have a better mortality rate and lower cardiovascular diseases morbidity than men. Thus, one can conclude that low family SES and increased stress have a huge impact on the cognitive development of an individual. A neuroimaging study has found out that individuals between the age of 3 to 20 years have a positive relationship between their brain surface area and the educational qualification of their parents.

Important factors for determining family SES:

Education: Education is a very important factor in having a good family status. With each level of education, median earnings increase. Thus higher level of education is often associated with better psychological and economic outcomes. It allows you to build your skillset for acquiring the desired job and can even help to convert a low SES into a high SES. In the poor areas, where it is difficult to satisfy basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing, people lack education
Income: Income also plays a main role in determining a person’s status in society. It includes salary, wages, rents, profits or any other type of cash flow. People from low-income families focus on their immediate spending and do not focus on accumulating wealth whereas people belonging to high-income families accumulate wealth while being able to fulfil their immediate spending and also enjoy the luxuries of life.
Occupation: Now, people can have different sources of income but the kind of occupations impacts their SES. Occupation combines your educational degrees with your income. Occupational status defines your social position in terms of your job characteristics, decisiveness, and psychological demands on the job. It is one of the difficult factors to measure as there are so many occupations with high competition. A lot of studies rank occupations based on the skill involved, some rank is based on income, and some on the level of education involved.

Wealth, health, social and political participation are some other variables that too have an impact on the position of a family in society. Lack of all these factors leads to having a negative impact on the physical and mental health of an individual. In the US, people having low SES have been found more indulged in drug abuse, unwanted pregnancies and malnutrition or obesity.

Income and family status

Important factors for determining family SES:

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