Who can afford to look to the future? The relationship between socio-economic status and proactive coping

The aim of this article was to examine, whether middle-aged and older adults spontaneously engage in proactive coping to prevent future problems associated with ageing and whether differences in proactive coping were associated with socio-economic status (SES).

As part of the cross-sectional Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2, 2001), a representative sample of 3189 adults aged 50-70 years filled in a questionnaire measuring proactive coping. In addition, data were collected regarding the three main components of SES, namely educational level, income and occupational status, as well as participants' health status.

We found that higher SES, especially with respect to income and education, was positively associated with proactive coping. This relationship was not moderated, but was partially mediated by physical health problems.

People with higher income and higher educational level used more proactive coping strategies in their daily life to offset potential problems associated with ageing. Physical health status partially explained the SES-differences in proactive coping. It seems that people with lower SES undertake less future-oriented activities as a result of the fact that present health problems require attention and drain resources.