Te. Joiner et al., Social appraisal as correlate, antecedent and consequence of mental and physical health outcomes, J SOC CLIN, 19(3), 2000, pp. 336-351
Social appraisal is associated with mental and physical health. The present
study documented this association among undergraduates, and clarified the
temporal relationships of social appraisal to mental/physical health measur
es. One hundred and forty three students completed indices of depression, s
elf-esteem, anger, physical aggression, illness, and cigarette and alcohol
use, twice, at sessions three weeks apart. A subset of these participants p
rovided anthropometric indices, allowing computation of waist-to-hip ratio
(WHR). All students were rated by their roommates as to the esteem in which
roommates held them (a measure of social appraisal). Results indicated tha
t social appraisal was associated with most measures of mental and physical
health functioning, such that students with low appraisals reported more d
epression, anger, physical aggression, physical illness, cigarette and alco
hol use, and lower self-esteem. Longitudinal analyses indicated that social
appraisal was more an antecedent than a consequence of mental and physical
health functioning.