Linking psychological distress and multilevel socioeconomic disadvantage: A representative population-based study of 15,851 U.K. adults.

Abstract

Despite extensive attention on psychological distress and socioeconomic disadvantage, no study has mapped conditional associations between specific distress symptoms and disadvantage across both household and neighborhood levels. Here, we estimated a preregistered network analysis to examine the conditional associations between eight specific aspects of psychological distress on the one hand and 15 household- (e.g., household crowding, income, financial ability to keep house warm in winter) and neighborhood-level (e.g., area-level deprivation, perceptions of pollution, vandalism) disadvantage variables on the other, using the U.K. Household Longitudinal Study (N = 15,851). Limitations on social activities and daily roles as a result of emotional and physical health problems were most strongly interconnected with socioeconomic disadvantage while feeling depressed showed no conditional associations with disadvantage. Being unable to afford replacement of large electrical items was the disadvantage variable most associated with distress, including sleep loss and worthlessness. Distress variables were associated with aspects of disadvantage across both the neighborhood and household levels, although the latter associations were more frequent and stronger. Our findings highlight a core role for functional impairments due to emotional problems and underline the need to assess and address the psychological consequences of socioeconomic circumstances across multiple levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).