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Social Justice Research
Published in: Social Justice Research 1/2019

20-02-2019

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

Authors: Min-Ah Lee, Ichiro Kawachi

Published in: Social Justice Research | Issue 1/2019

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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.
next article Is Justice More Important than Would Be Expected? The Role of Justice in Management Control Systems to Generate Goal Congruence, Trust in Managers and Fairness Perceptions

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Footnotes
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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Metadata
Title
Perceived Unfairness and Psychological Distress: Less Harmful as Age Increases?
Authors
Min-Ah Lee
Ichiro Kawachi
Publication date
20-02-2019
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Social Justice Research / Issue 1/2019
Print ISSN: 0885-7466
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6725
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-019-00325-9

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