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Perceived Unfairness and Psychological Distress: Less Harmful as Age Increases?

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Abstract

Does perceived unfairness influence psychological well-being differently according to age? We sought to examine the association between perceived unfairness and psychological distress, testing whether and how age moderates the association. Data were drawn from the Korean General Social Survey, a nationally representative cross-sectional sample, collected in 2 years (2011, 2012). The survey measured two types of perceived unfairness: distributive and procedural unfairness. We found that both types of perceived unfairness were positively and independently associated with psychological distress. Our results also showed effect modification by age; in other words, the harmful effects of perceived distributive and procedural unfairness on psychological distress decreased with age, suggesting that younger people were more distressed by perceived unfairness than older people. Our findings suggest that perceived unfairness is harmful to psychological well-being, but its effects become less salient as people age.

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Notes

  1. Although our study focuses only on distributive and procedural unfairness, additional distinctions have been made in terms of interactional and retributive unfairness. Interactional unfairness refers to if and how individuals are respectfully treated (Sabbagh & Schmitt, 2016), while retributive unfairness refers to the subjective appropriateness of “punishment of individuals or groups who have violated rules, laws, or norms” (Wenzel & Okimoto, 2016: 238).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Chung-Ang Univeristy, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 06974, South Korea

    Min-Ah Lee

  2. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave., 7th Floor, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ichiro Kawachi

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  1. Min-Ah Lee
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  2. Ichiro Kawachi
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Correspondence to Min-Ah Lee.

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Lee, MA., Kawachi, I. Perceived Unfairness and Psychological Distress: Less Harmful as Age Increases?. Soc Just Res 32, 1–25 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-019-00325-9

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