Socioeconomic Status, Stress and Prosocial Behaviour: The Mediation of Stress on the Relationship between  Socioeconomic Status and Prosocial Behaviour

The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and prosocial behaviour is a controversial topic in scientific literature. It remains unclear whether SES positively or negatively influences prosocial behaviour, as many other factors may be involved. This study introduced stress as a mediation variable between SES and prosocial behaviour, in order to better understand this complicated relationship. Aiming to fill this gap in knowledge, this research objective was to answer the question “Does stress mediate the relationship between SES and prosocial behaviour?”. Specifically, it was hypothesized that low SES would lead to increased stress, which in turn would lead to lower prosocial behaviour. In addition, as a second objective, we investigated whether stress would mediate the relationship between perceived socioeconomic status (PSES) and prosocial behaviour, and hypothesized similar findings as in the first model. 287 participants took part in an online study, where they...Show moreThe relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and prosocial behaviour is a controversial topic in scientific literature. It remains unclear whether SES positively or negatively influences prosocial behaviour, as many other factors may be involved. This study introduced stress as a mediation variable between SES and prosocial behaviour, in order to better understand this complicated relationship. Aiming to fill this gap in knowledge, this research objective was to answer the question “Does stress mediate the relationship between SES and prosocial behaviour?”. Specifically, it was hypothesized that low SES would lead to increased stress, which in turn would lead to lower prosocial behaviour. In addition, as a second objective, we investigated whether stress would mediate the relationship between perceived socioeconomic status (PSES) and prosocial behaviour, and hypothesized similar findings as in the first model. 287 participants took part in an online study, where they performed a prosocial behavioural task, and completed several self-report measures. Both mediation analysis revealed non-significant results, except for the relationship between SES and stress. We suggest that this non-significance could have been driven by factors that were unaccounted for in this research. This study adds onto the current literature, suggesting that the relationship between SES, prosocial behaviour and stress may be too complex to be captured by a simple mediation model. It is suggested that future research should focus on expanding the literature on the relationship between SES and stress by looking into other factors that could influence it.Show less

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Socioeconomic Status, Stress and Prosocial Behaviour: The Mediation of Stress on the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Prosocial Behaviour