Changing associations between socioeconomic status and self‐reported discrimination from the 1990s to the 2010s in the United States

We examined whether prevalence of social class discrimination—and its association with psychological distress—has changed between 1990s and 2010s in the United States. Data were from the original Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study with data collections in 1995–1996 (n = 2931) and 2004–2005 (n = 1708), and the new MIDUS Refresher sample from 2011 to 2014 (n = 2543). Socioeconomic status (SES) became more strongly associated with self‐rated discrimination over time, with individuals with the lowest SES experiencing more discrimination (B = 0.75, p < .001) and those with the highest SES less discrimination (B = 0.36, p < .001) over time: at baseline, the difference in self‐rated discrimination between the highest and lowest SES groups was 15.3% versus 10.8% (4.7% point difference). This difference increased to 20.0% versus 7.4% in the last study wave (12.6% point difference). Association between self‐reported discrimination and psychological distress strengthened over time, but the associations between socioeconomic indicators and distress did not change. The results suggest that people with low SES had higher risk of encountering unfair and disrespectful treatment in the 2010s compared to the 1990s.