Predictors of Perceived Scarcity: The Impact of Demographic Factors, Objective Socioeconomic Status, and Subjective Social Status

Perceived scarcity is a relatively new construct conceptualized to be a subjective indicator of perceived resource availability that captures factors previously unaccounted for by traditional, objective indicators of socioeconomic status (SES). Like the Subjective Social Status Scale (SSS), the Perceived Scarcity Scale (PScS) is a subjective measure that has been shown to account for unique variance when predicting health outcomes, as compared to measures such as income and education. Despite scarcity’s linkages to SES and health outcomes, little is known about perceived scarcity’s relationships with individual difference characteristics. The current study furthers the development of this measure by using multiple regression/correlation analyses to examine the demographic and objective SES factors influencing perceived scarcity and explore how perceived scarcity is related to SSS. Findings indicate that age, income, and proximal SSS are important predictors of scarcity across different types of samples. Mixed findings regarding race, gender, education, and distal SSS indicate the need for further research and exploration of moderated models. These results begin to elaborate how perceived scarcity is situated within the nomological network of SES indicators and clarify construct distinctiveness.