A Measure of Social Class

An 11-Item Measure of Social Class

Parental Education

1. Please indicate the highest education level achieved by your MOTHER. If you are not sure about the answer to this question, then please make your best guess.

2. Please indicate the highest education level achieved by your FATHER. If you are not sure about the answer to this question, then please make your best guess.

Parental Occupational Prestige and Status

3. Please indicate how you think most people would rate the prestige and status of the main occupation of your MOTHER. If your mother is or was mainly “unemployed” or a “homemaker,” then please count this as her occupation and rate its prestige/status. If you are not sure about the answer to this question, then please make your best guess.

4. Please indicate how you think most people would rate the prestige and status of the main occupation of your FATHER. If your father is or was mainly “unemployed” or a “homemaker,” then please count this as his occupation and rate its prestige/status. If you are not sure about the answer to this question, then please make your best guess.

Childhood Family Income

5. My family usually had enough money to buy things when I was growing up.

6. I grew up in a relatively wealthy neighbourhood.

7. I felt relatively wealthy compared to the other kids in my high school.

Subjective Social Class

8. My MOTHER’S social class is/was: (If you don’t know, please make your best guess.)

9. My FATHER’s social class is/was: (If you don’t know, please make your best guess.)

10. MY social class is: (If you don’t know, please make your best guess.)

The Subjective Social Status Scale

11. Below, you will see a scale of 11 levels ranging from the top level to the bottom level. Please think of this scale as levels that represent where people stand in society. At the top levels are the people who are best off - those who have the most money, the most education, and the most respected jobs. At the bottom levels are the people who are worse off - who have the least money, the least education, and the least respected jobs or no job. The higher your level, the closer you are to the people at the very top; the lower you are, the closer you are to the people at the very bottom. Thinking about your current situation, please indicate where you would place yourself on this scale relative to other people in Australia.

Notes and Attributions

1. Education level is the most widely used proxy for social class (e.g., Bowman, Kitayama, & Nisbett, 2009; Elo & Preston, 1996; Kraus & Stephens, 2012; Krieger & Fee, 1994; Liberatos, Link, & Kelsey, 1988; Martin, 2012; Martinez , Sher, Krull, & Wood, 2009; Sirin, 2005; Stephens, Fryberg, Markus Johnson, & Covarrubias, 2012). The categories used in the two parental education measures above are based on categories used by the New South Wales Population Health Surveys.

2. The three childhood socioeconomic status items are taken from Griskevicius, Delton, Roberston, and Tybur (2011) and have also been used by Hill, Prokosch, DelPriore, Griskevicius, and Kramer (2016).

3. The three subjective measures of social class are based on previous work by Jetten, Iyer, Tsivrikos, and Young (2008) and Ostrove and Long (2007). Subjective measures of social class have recently been advocated by Rubin, Denson, Kilpatrick, Matthews, Stehlik, and Zyngier (2014).

4. The final scale is based on the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (Adler & Stewart, 2007).