Wilson, WarrenKushlyk, Kristan2022-01-262022-01-262022-01Kushlyk, K. (2022). Is subjective social status associated with maternal and child allostatic load and maternal mental health in rural Nicaragua? (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/114337The marginalisation of women and children is manifest in disproportionately poor maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes cross-culturally. Subjective social status (SSS), a measure of one’s perceived rank relative to others within the social hierarchy, has been found to be more predictive of health than objectives measures of socioeconomic status (OSS) in some contexts, but a paucity of data exists on the topic outside of high-income countries (HICs). This cross-sectional study aims to help fill this gap by investigating the association between SSS and measures of maternal and child physical health, conceptualised as allostatic load (AL), and maternal mental health (MMH) in Los Robles, Nicaragua. Multiple regression modelling was carried out to test the hypotheses that SSS would be associated with weighted indices of maternal and child AL, and also common mental disorder (CMD) risk, as assessed using a screening questionnaire. A high prevalence of probable CMDs (22.8%) was documented among mothers in the sample. Higher SSS was significantly associated with an increased risk for CMDs (adj R2 = 0.25, p < 0.001) among mothers in Los Robles but, inconsistent with most other research on the topic, was not significantly associated with maternal (adj R2 = 0.024, p = 0.096) or child (adj R2 = 0.014, p = 0.17) AL. These findings indicate that SSS has important implications for MMH and that findings in HICs concerning predictors of physical health may not be applicable to low-and-middle-income countries.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Subjective Social StatusAllostatic LoadMaternal and Child HealthCommon Mental DisordersLMICAnthropologyMental HealthPublic Healthmaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/39549