Moderating effects of gender and vulnerability on the relationships between financial hardship, low education and immune response

Gender, financial hardship, low education and vulnerability to stress, were regressed on a latent dependent variable representing covariances of three mitogen tests measuring immune response in the form of lymphocyte prolifer ation (CON-A, PHA, and PWM). In addition to the four main effects, six inte raction terms involving all possible two-way combinations of the four main variables were regressed on the dependent variable. While financial strain and vulnerability exert significant negative main effects on immune respons e as anticipated, these variables interact with one another and with gender to produce complex conditional relationships. The interaction between low education and male gender produces a negative effect on immune response, wh ile financial hardship and vulnerability to stress interact to produce posi tive Effects on immune response. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.