Incorporating Socioeconomic Status Into Studies on Delay Discounting and Health via Subjective Financial Status: An Initial Validation in Tobacco Use

Delayed reward discounting (DRD) refers to the extent to which an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time and has been linked to a wide variety of health behaviors. Because it is commonly measured using monetary rewards, income is typically used as a covariate to adjust for a person's socioeconomic status. Standard financial income measures have several limitations, such as not incorporating pertinent considerations like cost of living or number of financial dependents. This study examined a novel subjective financial status measure that uses a simple omnibus self-attribution as an alternative strategy. The novel measure was examined in the context of tobacco involvement and compared with a traditional objective measure in two samples, one comprising 1,430 community-recruited adults (M-age = 38.9, 58.3% female) and the other comprising 852 adult daily smokers (M-age = 31.1, 38% female). Associations between DRD, subjective and objective income measures, and cigarette dependence were explored using correlational analyses, equivalence testing, and hierarchical linear regressions. Correlations revealed subjective income was robustly positively correlated with traditional income (rs = .52-.56) and had stronger associations with DRD and cigarette dependence compared to traditional income. Equivalence testing and multiple hierarchical regressions found subjective income to be statistically equivalent or superior to the traditional income measure. These findings provide initial support for the utility of this novel subjective income measurement to account for economic status in research on DRD and health.

Automated summary

Delayed reward discounting (DRD) refers to the extent to which an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time and has been linked to a wide variety of health behaviors. This study examined a novel subjective financial status measure that had stronger associations with DRD and cigarette dependence compared to traditional income measures.