Objectives: Classism might be the downside of the prevailing ideologies of individual responsibility for success. However, since studies into perceived classism have mainly been qualitative, little is known about its association with socioeconomic status, health, health behaviours and perceived inferiority, especially in more egalitarian countries. This study, therefore, examined the associations of perceived classism with socioeconomic status, health, health behaviours and perceived inferiority.
Methods: We used cross-sectional data (2012/2013) from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) (n = 1540; age 16-90; 46.9 % men).
Results: We found that classism was perceived by 18.2 % of the participants, with the lowest income and occupation group most likely to perceive classism (22.0 and 27.5 %, respectively). Perceived classism was significantly associated with poor health (e.g. self-rated health OR = 2.44, 95 % CI = 1.76-3.38) and feelings of inferiority (e.g. shame OR = 4.64, 95 % CI = 3.08-6.98). No significant associations were found with health behaviours.
Conclusions: To further examine the role of perceived classism for socioeconomic differences in health and its association with country-level socioeconomic inequalities, prevailing ideologies, and objective opportunities for social mobility, we recommend more longitudinal and international studies with comparable measures of perceived classism.
Keywords: Inferiority; Meritocratic ideology; Perceived classism; Self-rated health; Socioeconomic status; The Netherlands.