Primary Submission Category: Life-course/developmental
Geographical Variation in the Long-Arm of Childhood
Authors:Â Emily Dore
Presenting Author: Emily Dore*
Scholars have identified important variation in health disparities across states, including educational disparities in mortality and morbidity. The focus on state variation shifts research away from individual explanations of poor health to contextual reasons, such as the availability of needed resources. So far, this literature has largely investigated variation in the relationship between an individual’s own education and health. The current project expands this literature by incorporating the life course perspective and examining state variation in the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and adult health. The negative relationship between childhood SES and adult health is well documented, but it is unclear if this relationship varies across states. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study explores the relationship between childhood SES and three adult health outcomes by state: poor self-rated health, an aggregate measure of chronic conditions, and psychological distress (N=36,779). In each model, childhood SES is operationalized as highest parental education and controls include age, gender, and race. Preliminary results suggest there is important state variation in the relationship between childhood SES and all three health outcomes. The relationship between childhood SES and poor self-rated health was the most consistently different across states, with a significant difference found in 16 states. The difference was greatest in New Mexico, where the predicted probability of reporting poor health was 11.9% for adults from high-SES backgrounds compared to 78.1% for adults from low-SES backgrounds, a 66.2-percentage point difference. This study poses important policy questions for why the relationship between childhood SES and health is larger in some states than others, and ultimately how policymakers and decision-makers can best support children throughout their lives.