Abstract
In the historical traditions of sociology one finds ample evidence that well-being relates to broader social processes. This association was proposed in Marx’s theory of alienation, Durkheim’s studies of suicide, and Weber’s focus on life-chances as the key factor defining one’s position in the social hierarchy. Over time, sociological inquiries increasingly attended to different aspects of well-being, with health constituting one branch of scholarship. In the classical tradition, however, determinants of health were constructed almost exclusively in terms of variations in such social structural arrangements as age, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. These factors are certainly important. People become ill, and their location in social stratification with regard to age, gender, race/ethnicity, and social class influences the nature of medical attention they receive. Furthermore, people of high socioeconomic status stand a better chance of remaining healthy because they may access higher quality housing, food, and material conditions that enhance life-circumstances. There are, however, considerable variations among individuals within each of these structural arrangements.
Direct correspondence to Kristine J. Ajrouch (KAjrouch@emich.edu) and Mansoor Moaddel (MMoaddel@emich.edu), Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. This study has been supported by Grants from The National Science Foundation (SES-0097282) the Ford Foundation, and Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, and the National Institute of Aging (R03 AG19388-01).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ai, Amy L., Ruth Dunkle, Christopher Peterson, and Steven Bolling. 1998. “The Role of Private Prayer in Psychological Recovery Among Midlife and Aged Patients Following Cardiac Surgery.” The Gerontologist 38 (5): 591–601.
Alexander, Bobby C. 1991. “Correcting Misinterpretations of Turner’s Theory: An African-American Pentecostal Illustration.”Journal the Scientific Study of Religion 30(1): 26–44.
Angel, Ronald and William Gronfein. 1988. “The Use of Subjective Information in Statistical Models.” American Sociological Review 53 (3): 464–73.
Arbuckle, James L. 1995. Amos for Windows. Analysis of moment structures (Version 3.5). Chicago, IL: Small Waters.
Barer, Barbara M. 1994. “Men and Women Aging Differently.” International Journal of Aging and Human Development 38 (1): 29–40.
Beblawi, Hazem. 1987. “The Rentier State in the Arab World.” In The Rentier State, edited by Hazem Beblawi and Luciani Giacomo, pp. 49–62. London: Croom Helm.
Benson, Herbert. 1997. Timeless Healing. New York: Fireside.
Benyamini, Yael, Ellen. L Idler, Howard Leventhal, and Elaine A. Leventhal. 2000. “Positive Affect and Function as Influences on Self-Assessments of Health: Expanding our View beyond Illness and Disability.”Journals of Gerontology 55B(2): 107–16.
Bisconti, Toni. L. and Cindy S Bergeman. 1999 “Perceived Control as a Mediator of the Relationships among Social Support, Psychological Well-Being and Perceived Health.” The Gerontologist 39 (1): 94–103.
Bobak, Martin, Hynek Pikhart, Clyde Hertzman, Richard Rose, and Michael M. Marmot. 1998. “Socioeconomic Factors, Perceived Control and Self-Reported Health in Russia: A Cross-Sectional Survey.” Social Science and Medicine 47: 269–79.
Bobak, Martin, Hynek Pikhart, Richard Rose, Clyde Hertzman, and Michael M. Marmot 2000. “Socioeconomic Factors, Material Inequalities, and Perceived Control in Self-Rated Health: Cross-Sectional Data from Seven Post-Communist Countries.” Social Science and Medicine 51 (9): 1343–50.
Bosma, Hans, Carola Schrijvers, and Johan P. Mackenbach. 1999. “Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality and Importance of Perceived Control: Cohort Study.” British Medical Journal 319 (7223): 1469–70.
Brynen, Rex. 1992. “Economic Crisis and Post-Rentier Democratization in the Arab World: The Case ofJordan.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 25 (1): 69–97.
Burch, Druin. 2001. “Health Promotion.” The Lancet 358 (9285): 936.
Carlson, Per. 1998. “Self-Perceived Health in East and West Europe: Another European Health Divide.” Social Science and Medicine 46 (10): 1355–66.
Carroll, Stephanie. 1991. “Spirituality and Purpose in Life in Alcoholism Recovery.” Journal of Studies of Alcohol 54 (3): 297–301.
Coontz, Stephanie. 1992. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books.
Francis, Leslie J., Susan H. Jones, and Carolyn Wilcox. 2000. “Religion and Happiness: During Adolescence, Young Adulthood and Later Life.”Journal of Psychology and Christianity 19(3): 245–57.
Francis, Leslie J. and Michael T. Stubbs. 1987. “Measuring Attitudes Towards Christianity: From Childhood to Adulthood.” Personality and Individual Differences 8 (5): 741–43.
Gerdtham, Ulf-G and Magnus Johannesson. 2001. “The Relationship between Happiness, Health, and Socio-Economic Factors: Results Based on Swedish Microdata.” The Journal of Socio-Economics 30 (6): 553–57.
House, James S., James M. Lepkowski, Ann M. Kinney, R. P. Mero, Ronald C. Kessler, and A. Regula Herzog. 1994. “The Social Stratification of Aging and Health.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 35 (3): 213–34.
Idler, Ellen L. and Stanislav V. Kasl. 1995. “Self-Ratings of Health: Do They Also Predict Change in Functional Ability?”Journals of Gerontology 50B(6): 344–53.
Inglehart, Ronald F. 2093. “Gender, Aging and Well-being.” In Islam, Gender, Culture and Democracy: Fin;lim~ from the Values Surveys, edited by Ronald Inglehart, pp. 391–408. Willowdale, ON: De Sitter Publications. 2003.
Inglehart, Ronald F. and Hans-Dieter Klingemann. 2000. “Genes, Culture, Democracy, and Happiness.” In Subjective Well-Being across Cultures, edited by Ed Deiner and Eunkook M. Suh, pp. 165–83. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Janevic, Mary R., Kristine J. Ajrouch, Alicia Tarnowski, Hiroko Akiyama, and Toni C. Antonucci. 2000. “The Social Relations-Physical Health Connection: A Comparison of Elderly Samples from the United States and Japan.” The Journal of Health Psychology 5 (4): 413–29.
Khuri, Fouad I. 1990. Tents and Pyramids. London: Saqi Books.
King, Michael, Peter Speck, and Angela Thomas. 1999. “The Effect of Spiritual Beliefs on Outcome from Illness,” Social Science and Medicine 48 (9): 1291–99.
Krause, Neil M. and Gina M. Jay. 1994. “What Do Global Self-Rated Health Items Measure?” Medical Care 32 (9): 930–42.
Lachman, Marjorie. E. and Suzanne L.Weaver. 1998. “The Sense of Control as a Moderator of Social Class Differences in Health and Well-Being.” Journal of Personal and Social Psychology 74 (3): 763–73.
Levin, Jeffrey. 1996. “How Religion Influences Morbidity and Health: Reflections on Natural History, Salutogenesis and Host Resistance.” Social Science and Medicine 43 (5): 849–64.
Lewis, Christopher A. 2002. “Church Attendance and Happiness Among Northern Irish Undergraduate Students: No Association.” Pastoral Psychology 50 (3): 191–95.
Liberatos, Peggy, Bruce G. Link, and Jennifer L. Kelsey. 1988. “The Measurement of Social Class in Epidemiology.” Epidemiological Reviews 10 (1): 87–121.
Luciani, Giacomo. 1988 “Economic Foundations of Democracy and Authoritarianism: The Arab World in Comparative Perspective.” Arab Studies Quarterly 10 (4): 457–75.
Marmot, Michael G. 2003. “Understanding Social Inequalities in Health.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 46 (3): S9–23.
Marmot, Michael G., Rebecca Fuhrer, Susan L. Ettner, Nadine F. Marks, Larry L. Bumpass, and Carol D. Ryff. 1998. “Contribution of Psychosocial Factors to Socioeconomic Differences in Health.” The Millbank Qminvily76(3): 403–48.
Moaddel, Mansoor. 2002a. Jord;uilan Exceptionalism: An Analysis of State-Religion Relationship in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Syria. New York: Palgrave.
Moaddel, Mansoor. 2002b. “The Study of Islamic Culture and Politics: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 28: 359–86.
Moaddel, Mansoor and Taqhi Azadarmaki. 2002. “The World Views of Islamic Publics: The Cases of Egypt, Iran, and Jordan.” Comparative Sociology 1 (3–4): 299–319.
Pearlin, Leonard. 1992. “Structure and Meaning in Medical Sociology.” Journal of Health and Social Bch,n•ior 33 (1): 1–9.
Robbins, Mandy and Leslie J. Francis. 1996. “Are Religious People Happier?: A Study among Undergraduates.” In Research in Religious Education, edited by Leslie J. Francis, William K. Kay, and William S. Campbell, pp 207–17. Leominster: Gracewing.
Rogers, Mary A. M. and Emily Zaragoza-Lao. 2003. “Happiness and Children’s Health: An Investigation of Art, Entertainment, and Recreation.” American Journal of Public Health 93 (2): 288–89.
Ross, Catherine E. and John Mirowsky. 2002. “Age and the Gender Gap in the Sense of Personal Control.” Social Psychology Quarterly 65 (2): 125–45.
Ross, Catherine E. and Marieke Van Willigen. 1997. “Education and the Subjective Quality of Life.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 38: 275–97.
Ross, Catherine E. and Chia-Ling Wu. 1995. “The Links between Education and Health.” American Sociological Review 60: 719–45.
Sastry, Jaya and Catherine E. Ross. 1998. “Asian Ethnicity and Sense of Personal Control.” Social Psycholo AAical Quarterly 61 (2): 101–20.
Sobel, Michael E. 1982. “Asymptotic Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models.” InSociological Methodology, edited by Samuel Leinhart, pp. 290–312. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Skevington, Suzanne M. 1997. “Developing Items for the WHOQOL: An Investigation of Contemporary Beliefs about Quality of Life Related to Health in Britain.” British Journal of Health Psychology 2 (1): 55–72.
Smith, James. P. and Raynard S. Kington. 1997. “Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health in Late Life.” In Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Health of Older Americans, edited by Linda G. Martin and Beth J. Soldo, pp. 106–61. Washington DC: National Academic Press.
Spiers, Nicola, Carol Jagger, Michael Clarke, and Antony Arthur. 2003. “Are Gender Differences in the Relationship between Self-Rated Health and Mortality Enduring? Results from Three Birth Cohorts in Melton Mowbray, United Kingdom.” Gerontologist 43 (3): 406–11.
Stack, Steven and J. Ross Eshleman. 1998. “Marital Status and Happiness: A 17 Nation Study.” Journal of Marriage and Fuuiiy 60 (2): 527–36.
Thomas, William. I. and Dorothy S. Thomas. 1928. The Child in America. New York: Knopf.
Turner, Victor. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Veenhoven, Ruut. 1988. “The Utility of Happiness.” Social Indicators Research 20 (4): 333–54.
Verbrugge, Lois. 1976. “Sex Differentials in Morbidity and Mortality in the U.S.” Social Biology 23 (4): 275–96.
Verbrugge, Lois. 1985. “Gender and Health: An Update on Hypotheses and Evidence.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 26(3): 156–82.
Verbrugge, Lois. 1989. “The Twain Meet: Empirical Explanations of Sex Differences in Health and Mortality.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 30 (3): 282–304.
Vingilis, Evelyn R., Terrance J. Wade, and Jane S. Seeley. 2002. “Predictors of Adolescent Self-Rated Health: Analysis of the National Population Health Survey.” Canadian Journal of Public Health 93 (3): 193–97.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2007 Mansoor Moaddel
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ajrouch, K.J., Moaddel, M. (2007). Social Structure versus Perception: A Cross-National Comparison of Self-Rated Health in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and the United States. In: Moaddel, M. (eds) Values and Perceptions of the Islamic and Middle Eastern Publics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230603332_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230603332_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-62198-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-60333-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)