The idea that socioeconomic differences are a “fundamental cause” of health and well-being is the basis for large volumes of research. However, one of the challenges in this area is that of linking socioeconomic positions to etiological mechanisms in theoretically informative ways. The situation is doubly challenging because the expression and meaning of socioeconomic positions and the mechanisms they activate change over time. Focusing on depression and applying mediation analysis to data from a large multinational sample from European countries, we find strong support for a three-stage model where occupational differences are largely mediated by exposure to precarious work, which itself is mediated by social marginality. The model is largely robust across welfare state regimes. Ultimately, the research extends fundamental cause perspectives by highlighting connections between “old” and “new” dimensions of socioeconomic status and the social and social psychological sequelae that connect them to psychological well-being.

社会经济差异是健康和福祉的“根本原因”这一观点是大量研究的基础。然而，这一领域的挑战之一是以理论上提供信息的方式将社会经济地位与病因机制联系起来。这种情况具有双重挑战，因为社会经济地位的表达和意义以及它们所激活的机制会随着时间而变化。专注于抑郁症并将中介分析应用于来自欧洲国家的大型跨国样本的数据，我们发现强烈支持三阶段模型，其中职业差异主要由接触不稳定的工作来调节，而工作本身又由社会边缘化介导。该模型在福利国家制度中基本上是稳健的。最终，