Suchergebnisse

Schooling differences between identical twins are often utilized as a natural experiment to estimate returns to education. Despite longstanding doubts about the truly random nature of within-twin-pair schooling discordance, such discordance has not yet been understood comprehensively, in terms of diverse between- and within-family peer, academic, familial, social, and health exposures. Here, a predictive analysis using national U.S. midlife twin data shows that within-pair schooling differences are endogenous to a variety of childhood exposures. Using discordance propensities, returns to education under a true natural experiment are simulated. Results for midlife occupation and income reveal differences in estimated returns to education that are statistically insignificant, suggesting that twin-based estimates of causal effects are robust. Moreover, identical and fraternal twins show similar levels of discordance endogeneity and similar responses to propensity weighting, suggesting that the identical twins may not provide demonstrably better leverage in the causal identification of educational returns.

Does adulthood physical health continue to reflect parental support and warmth received during childhood? Although previous research supports this continuity, I examine this question according to a sex-matching perspective. Drawing on representative cross-sectional data featuring detailed measures of maternal and paternal warmth (1995 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States), I focus on adults who came of age in traditional two-parent households containing a biological mother and father. Across three physical health outcomes, I find strong support for sex-matching, in that paternal warmth during childhood is usually more important to male adulthood health whereas maternal warmth tends to be more important to female adulthood health. Sex-matching effects are especially evident for physical health difficulties (number of chronic health conditions and functional limitations). These findings provide a new lens through which to view physical health disparities among today's middle- to late-aged adults who came of age in traditional households.

Using the 2004 General Social Survey (N = 453), the identity stress process is investigated in terms of crises in intimate relationships and at the workplace. I discuss dispositional optimism as a psychological resource that is relatively independent of the situation and the self, making it ideal for structurally disadvantaged actors and for navigating crises that diminish self-based personal resources such as self-esteem. Consistent with this logic, dispositional optimism was associated with increases in self-esteem and self-rated health net of emotional stability; its effect on these outcomes intensified around the time of relationship crises and was stronger for women than for men. Moreover, optimism was more vital to self-rated health than self-esteem during either type of crisis, suggesting it may be a uniquely durable psychological resource in the stress process.

This text provides original evidence arguing for dignity as an indicator of public health, by offering a scientific framework for measuring dignity and its social determinants. Hitlin and Andersson show that dignity can be efficiently measured by using simple survey items that ask individuals whether there is 'dignity' in their life or in how they are treated by others.

In the United States, "some college" is attained more frequently than a 4-year college degree. However, attainments below 4-year college vary considerably in terms of credentials and years of higher education, and gender differences in health disparities remain overlooked. Additionally, high school experiences may confound any estimated health gains. We draw on national longitudinal data (Add Health; Waves IV and V) to estimate associations between subbaccalaureate education and general health during young adulthood and again at early midlife. Relative to attaining no education past high school, women's greater self-rated health with all levels of postsecondary attainment is robust to high school experiences, with the exception of vocational/technical training without a degree, in young adulthood and in early midlife. Greater health gains are linked to associate degrees compared to some college without a degree. For men, health benefits are found only among 4-year degree holders. For both genders, depressive symptom buffering linked to subbaccalaureate education is inconsistent and sometimes not robust to high school experiences. Overall, these findings offer a compelling case for recasting college health gains in terms of distinct postsecondary endpoints by gender.

AbstractSocioeconomic inequalities in health and well-being are large, beginning early in childhood and accumulating over the life course, but they also vary widely across rich, developed nations. Despite this well-known cross-national variation, research has yet to examine why children's health disparities might be larger or smaller based on national policy contexts and macroeconomic conditions. Parental health and well-being suffer under high work–family or economic strain, which may directly impact children's health inequalities by family social class. These childhood health disadvantages, if not substantially improved, compound to even larger adult inequalities. To examine the role of national work–family reconciliation in children's health, we merge country-level policy data with 2006 and 2010 World Health Organization child-level data on mental and physical well-being and family economic disadvantage. Based on adjusted estimates, we find greatly narrowed disparities in children's self-rated health as work flexibility and vacation-sick leave mandates become more generous. However, cash transfer policies, including family benefits spending and childcare costs, were not associated with the size of children's health disparities. Taken together, our results suggest the distinctive value of better work–family accommodations, rather than any generic cash allowances, for lessening family-based inequalities in children's health and human capital development.