Family Structure and Self-Rated Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

While the relationship between family structure and child well-being is well-established, little is known about the specific impact of family structure on health in adolescence and young adulthood. Using data on 12,737 respondents from Waves I and III of Add Health, we examine the association between family structure (two biological/adoptive, stepfather, and single mother families at Wave I) and self-rated health in adolescence (Wave I) and young adulthood (Wave III). We build on previous literature by investigating whether the relationship between family structure and self-rated health is mediated by demographic background, socioeconomic status, parent–child relationships, external social support, and health characteristics and behaviors, and whether the influence of these factors endures into adulthood. Overall, we find that self-rated health is reduced for respondents who lived in stepfather or single mother families during adolescence, although this effect is attenuated in young adulthood. Family structure effects at both waves are explained by socioeconomic status, social support and competence, and health characteristics and behaviors. We find little evidence that demographic background or mother–child relationships mediate the relationship between family structure and self-rated health. By young adulthood, effects of most adolescent predictors are attenuated, but health assessments are largely influenced by changes in health characteristics and behaviors, and in family type.

Understanding links between adolescent health and educational attainment

The educational and economic consequences of poor health during childhood and adolescence have become increasingly clear, with a resurgence of evidence leading researchers to reconsider the potentially significant contribution of early-life health to population welfare both within and across generations. Meaningful relationships between early-life health and educational attainment raise important questions about how health may influence educational success in young adulthood and beyond, as well as for whom its influence is strongest. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I examine how adolescents’ health and social status act together to create educational disparities in young adulthood, focusing on two questions in particular. First, does the link between adolescent health and educational attainment vary across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups? Second, what academic factors explain the connection between adolescent health and educational attainment? The findings suggest that poorer health in adolescence is strongly negatively related to educational attainment, net of both observed confounders and unobserved, time-invariant characteristics within households. The reduction in attainment is particularly large for non-Hispanic white adolescents, suggesting that the negative educational consequences of poor health are not limited to only the most socially disadvantaged adolescents. Finally, I find that the link between adolescent health and educational attainment is explained by academic factors related to educational participation and, most importantly, academic performance, rather than by reduced educational expectations. These findings add complexity to our understanding of how the educational consequences of poor health apply across the social hierarchy, as well as why poor health may lead adolescents to complete less schooling.In a presidential address to the Population Association of America, Palloni (2006) emphasized the need for research on early-life health as a mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status. Although poor health is well known as a consequence of childhood and family socioeconomic conditions, it is also clear that illness during childhood and adolescence has lasting educational and socioeconomic effects (Case, Fertig, and Paxson 2005; Conley and Bennett 2000; Smith 2005). What remains less clear is how health early in life influences educational success in young adulthood and beyond. Do those with a health disadvantage graduate from high school at lower rates, for example, because they perform poorly in school or because they and their families develop reduced expectations for the future? In addition, how do race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status complicate these relationships? Our understanding of how health’s influence on educational attainment differs across groups is unclear.This article considers these complexities by asking several questions. It confirms that health during adolescence is strongly negatively associated with educational attainment and then examines this relationship in greater depth than is typical. First, I examine variation in the link between health and educational attainment along socioeconomic and racial/ethnic lines. Are the families of adolescents in poorer health better able to mitigate the negative educational consequences of a condition if they are socially and/or economically advantaged? Or do youths in these families suffer an equal or greater disadvantage? Second, I evaluate the role of academic factors—specifically, educational participation, performance, and expectations—that may explain the connection between adolescents’ health and educational attainment. I examine these questions with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), with an overall goal of understanding the ways in which health and social status act together to create educational disparities in the early life course.     

Intergenerational Profiles of Socioeconomic (Dis)advantage and Obesity During the Transition to Adulthood

Investigations of socioeconomic status (SES) and health during the transition to adulthood in the United States are complicated by the later and more varied transitions in residence, employment, schooling, and social roles compared with previous generations. Parental SES is an important influence during adolescence but cannot sufficiently capture the SES of the independent young adult. Typical, single SES indicators based on income or education likely misclassify the SES of young adults who have not yet completed their education or other training, or who have entered the labor force early with ultimately lower status attainment. We use a latent class analysis (LCA) framework to characterize five intergenerational SES groups, combining multidimensional SES information from two time points—that is, adolescent (parental) and young adult (self) SES data. Associations of these groups with obesity, a high-risk health outcome in young adults, revealed nuanced relationships not seen using traditional intergenerational SES measures. In males, for example, a middle-class upbringing in adolescence and continued material advantage into adulthood was associated with nearly as high obesity as a working poor upbringing and early, detrimental transitions. This intergenerational typology of early SES exposure facilitates understanding of SES and health during young adulthood.     

An integrative approach to health

In this article, I make the case for using an integrative approach to health, broadly defined as social, emotional, mental, and physical well-being; for studying health among the young as an important marker for future health and well-being across the life course; and for understanding health disparities among the young as both causes and consequences of social stratification. An integrative approach bridges biomedical sciences with social and behavioral sciences by understanding the linkages between social, behavioral, psychological, and biological factors in health. It is furthermore vital that integration occur in all steps of the research process: in theory, design, data collection, and analysis. I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, or Add Health, as an example of an integrative approach to health and of the importance of adolescence and the transition to adulthood years for setting health trajectories into adulthood. Evidence is also presented on the linkages between health trajectories during adolescence and the transition to adulthood and social stratification in adulthood.     

Social Responsibility,Substance Use,and Sexual Risk Behavior in Men Who Have Sex With Men

Considerable public health literature focuses on relationships between problematic human characteristics (e.g., psychopathology) and unhealthy behaviors. A recent movement termed positive psychology emphasizes the advantages of assessing relationships between human strengths (e.g., altruism) and beneficial health behaviors. The present study assessed social responsibility, an orientation to help or protect others even when there is nothing to be gained as an individual, and its relationship to HIV-relevant behaviors. In our sample of 350 men who have sex with men (MSM), social responsibility was negatively correlated with substance use and HIV risk behaviors. Men who had been tested for HIV and knew their HIV status—a behavior that helps men protect their partners but does not protect themselves from the virus—also scored higher in social responsibility. Interventions designed to reduce HIV risk behavior in MSM may benefit from efforts to promote human strengths.     

Social Capital and Self Perceived Health Among European Older Adults

There is increasing interest among researchers in the effects of social capital on the health of older adults. One of the key policy question for an ageing population concerns how do we identify the factors that influence health. Very recently, an increasing interest on social capital as a key determinant for health has developed and, surprisingly, not much is known for the European population. This paper analyzes the association between social capital and self-perceived health among older adults in Europe using a mixed effects logistic model. Social capital is considered in its two components—bonding and bridging—in order to understand if the relations inside or outside an individual inner circle have a different association with health. Our results give empirical support to the role of individual social capital in preventing a poor self-perceived health. This means that social capital, especially the bridging component of it, can be one of the key factors of ageing in good health and should be fostered by policy makers in order to give an answer to one of the most compelling challenge of our century: population ageing.     

Gender differences in the link between childhood socioeconomic conditions and heart attack risk in adulthood

A growing body of evidence shows that childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is predictive of disease risk in later life, with those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to experience poor adult-health outcomes. Most of these studies, however are based on middle-aged male populations and pay insufficient attention to the pathways between childhood risks and specific adult disorders. This article examines gender differences in the link between childhood SES and heart attack risk trajectories and the mechanisms by which early environments affect future disease risk. By using methods that model both latent and path-specific influences, we identify heterogeneity in early life conditions and human, social, and health capital in adulthood that contribute to diverse heart attack risk trajectories between and among men and women as they age into their 60s and 70s. We find that key risk factors for heart attack operate differently for men and women. For men, childhood SES does not differentiate those at low, increasing, and high risk for heart attack. In contrast, women who grew up without a father and/or under adverse economic conditions are the most likely to experience elevated risk for heart attack, even after we adjust for the unequal distribution of working and living conditions, social relationships, access to health care, and adult lifestyle behaviors that influence health outcomes.     

Opportunities to Meet: Occupational Education and Marriage Formation in Young Adulthood

Explanations for the positive association between education and marriage in the United States emphasize the economic and cultural attractiveness of having a college degree in the marriage market. However, educational attainment may also shape the opportunities that men and women have to meet other college-educated partners, particularly in contexts with significant educational stratification. We focus on work—and the social ties that it supports—and consider whether the educational composition of occupations is important for marriage formation during young adulthood. Employing discrete-time event-history methods using the NLSY-97, we find that occupational education is positively associated with transitioning to first marriage and with marrying a college-educated partner for women but not for men. Moreover, occupational education is positively associated with marriage over cohabitation as a first union for women. Our findings call attention to an unexplored, indirect link between education and marriage that, we argue, offers insight into why college-educated women in the United States enjoy better marriage prospects.     

Social Networks,Social Cohesion,and Later-Life Health

Our study contributes to the literature acknowledging the joint role of social networks and social cohesion in shaping individual’s health, focusing on the older population aged 50 and over. Exploiting rich ego-centered social network data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and following the conceptual model of social integration and health proposed by Berkman et al. (Soc Sci Med 51:843–857. doi:10.1016/S0277-9536(00)00065-4, 2000), we estimate multilevel models of self-reported and observer-measured later-life health outcomes. These models simultaneously account for (a) characteristics of 39,551 respondents’ personal social networks and (b) a measure of social cohesion—namely, participation in social organizations—across 57 Continental European regions, clustered in 14 countries. We find significant associations between individuals’ health and various social network characteristics (size, support, quality) as well as social cohesion. Moreover, cross-level interaction effects suggest that the social-network-health nexus is contextually bound. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and perspectives for future research.     

Barriers to and facilitators for addressing overweight and obesity before conception: A qualitative study

BackgroundObesity is a significant global health issue, especially for reproductive-aged women. Women who enter pregnancy overweight or obese are at increased risk of a range of adverse reproductive, maternal, and child health outcomes. The preconception period has been recognised as a critical time to intervene to improve health outcomes for women and their children. Despite this recognition, adequate information is significantly lacking in relation to women’s health experiences, behaviours, and information preferences to inform the development of high-quality preconception intervention strategies.AimThis study aimed to examine women’s perspectives of barriers, enablers, and strategies for addressing overweight and obesity before conception.MethodUsing a qualitative research design, twelve multiparous women, aged between 32 and 43 years, who considered themselves to be overweight or obese were interviewed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.FindingsThree themes were identified in relation to barriers: lack of information and knowledge, time constraints, and affordability. The following four themes emerged with respect to enablers and strategies: knowledge provision, accountability and motivation, regular contact, and habit formation.ConclusionKey factors to incorporate in women-centred interventions for preconception weight loss include multi-faceted knowledge provision and practical affordable methods for supporting healthy behaviours. Interventions should integrate techniques for ensuring regular contact with support networks, to enhance accountability, motivation, and facilitate habit formation. Further research is now being conducted by our team to co-design interventions and strategies informed by these findings.     

论城市少数民族流动人口的社会保障问题

由于户籍制度的限制和现行政策的不完善,城市少数民族流动人口在就业、教育、医疗、住房等领域缺乏必要的社会保障．这对社会的稳定和发展造成了消极影响。文章讨论了城市少数民族流动人口的社会保障问题应该坚持的原则和主要对策,认为从长远来看,要运步构建有利于少数民族流动人口在城市中社会融入的经济、社会和文化条件。     

Young Adulthood as a Factor in Social Change in the United States

This essay compares family change during two periods of social and historical upheaval in the United States: the industrial revolution of the late nineteenth century and the more recent family changes of the late twentieth century. Despite the manifest social and demographic changes brought about by the industrial revolution, some aspects of family life remained unchanged. Almost all new families formed in the United States before and during the industrial revolution were same‐race heterosexual marriages. In the past half‐century, however, family diversity has become the new rule; interracial marriages and extramarital cohabitation have both risen sharply. A key to understanding the lack of family diversity in the past and the recent rise in diversity is the changing nature of young adulthood.     

Residential Mobility Across Local Areas in the United States and the Geographic Distribution of the Healthy Population

Determining whether population dynamics provide competing explanations to place effects for observed geographic patterns of population health is critical for understanding health inequality. We focus on the working-age population—the period of adulthood when health disparities are greatest—and analyze detailed data on residential mobility collected for the first time in the 2000 U.S. census. Residential mobility over a five-year period is frequent and selective, with some variation by race and gender. Even so, we found little evidence that mobility biases cross-sectional snapshots of local population health. Areas undergoing large or rapid population growth or decline may be exceptions. Overall, place of residence is an important health indicator; yet, the frequency of residential mobility raises questions of interpretation from etiological or policy perspectives, complicating simple understandings that residential exposures alone explain the association between place and health. Psychosocial stressors related to contingencies of social identity associated with being black, urban, or poor in the United States may also have adverse health impacts that track with structural location even with movement across residential areas.     

Spirituality and Social Media: The Search for Support Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men in Tennessee

ABSTRACT

Young Black Men Who Have Sex With Men (BMSM) have been the subject of much research focused on health disparities in HIV occurrence, stigma, and mental health. Although such research is important, fewer studies focus on other equally salient areas of their lives such as spirituality, religious practices, and social support. Informed by literature on social support, this research endeavors to better understand these dynamics for a group of young BMSM who reside in a metropolitan city in Tennessee. Focus group results and content analysis uncover themes related to religion and resilience; queering Christianity; and virtual spirituality. Participants expressed an overarching need for support, safe spaces, genuine relationships, and godly instruction, conveyed through traditional Black Church involvement and nontraditional Internet usage. Findings are important for strategic, proactive, cross-generational collaboration with young BMSM to holistically meet their varied needs.     

Area Deprivation and Liver Cancer Prevalence in Shenzhen,China: A Spatial Approach Based on Social Indicators

Cancer has become an alarming threat to human health and well-being worldwide. Examining the social determinants of cancer prevalence should effectively inform the practices and strategies on cancer treatment and prevention. However, rather few studies have conducted in this regard for developing countries. This paper attempts to characterize the association between area deprivation and liver cancer prevalence using a case of Shenzhen, China. Data from 2009 to 2011 provided by Shenzhen’s Health Information Center are used to calculate the incidence rate of liver cancer at district level. An area deprivation index (ADI) at district level is established by integrating 13 indicators of 5 domains (income, employment, education, housing and demography). The weight for each indicator is determined by two typical subjective methods (AHP and fuzzy AHP) and two common objective methods (Entropy and Coefficient Variation). Quantitative comparisons indicate that the four methods are highly consistent though they assign different weight to the indicators. Spatial lag regression identifies significantly positive linear relationships between ADIs and liver cancer incidence rate from 2009 and 2010. It suggests that greater possibility of liver cancer prevalence would be expected in districts of higher social deprivation. The results also denote that the obtained relationships are insensitive to weight determination method and temporal dimension. Our study demonstrates that spatial autocorrelation should be incorporated for better understanding the association between area deprivation and liver cancer prevalence at district level. This paper provides some new insights into social indicators research.     

Income Distribution and Social Tolerance

Social tolerance, i.e. the tolerance for the intrinsic diversity of large social groups, can be viewed as a synergic effect of the features of both individuals and socio-economic environment. This paper proposes a twofold contribution to the literature. First, it advances a conceptual framework in which tolerance at individual levels is explained by social polarization—in the form of income distribution—and the perceived quality of the social relationships and structures. Second, the regression analysis—involving micro-data from World Values Survey covering a time span between 2010 and 2014, for 48 countries—provides robust evidences for a non-linear impact of income distribution on social tolerance. This impact appears to be U-shaped and displays a pronounced degree of asymmetry. Also, labour market position, education, class self-identification, gender, age, marital status, levels of individuals’ personal security and sharing of post-materialist values matter in explaining social tolerance. The same main determinants contribute to the formation of both social tolerance and social capital. The differences are related to the amplitude as well as to the degree of symmetry for the corresponding non-linear transmission channels.     

Origins and Destinations,but How Much and When? Educational Disparities in Smoking and Drinking Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Educational inequalities in health behaviors change dynamically across the life course. Yet, how parental and personal education interactively shape age-specific behavioral inequalities across the transition to adulthood has yet to be understood. Drawing on national Add Health data (N?=?12,605; 6,675 women and 5,930 men), we analyze age- and gender-specific trajectories of current smoking and binge drinking from adolescence to young adulthood. In line with previous work, we find that parental education associates with smoking and drinking disparities even after respondents’ own education is completed. Reciprocally, we also find that disparities by eventual educational attainment appear early. During the college years, higher parental education predicts higher—not lower—rates of binge drinking. We find that attaining higher education “against the odds” of an educationally disadvantaged family background circumscribes the lowest rates of smoking and drinking for men and women alike, and especially during the college years, while “falling from grace” by not attaining higher education at levels matching one’s parents predicts the highest levels of smoking and drinking for both genders during or after college. These results shed new light on the interactive socioeconomic processes that help to explain behavioral health gradients across adolescence and adulthood.

     

Qualitative insights into women's personal experiences of perinatal depression and anxiety

Background and aimSymptoms of perinatal depression and anxiety are usually described and understood from a nosological perspective. This research sought to gain insight into women's lived experience of postnatal depression and anxiety, the factors that contribute to these symptoms and the context in which they develop.MethodFace to face and telephone interviews were conducted with 28 women from metropolitan and rural areas across Australia, who had experienced postnatal depression and/or anxiety within the last five years. Analysis was conducted from a grounded theory perspective.FindingsParticular symptoms of anxiety and depression develop in the context of the numerous changes inherent to the transition to motherhood and contribute to a common experience of frustration and loss. Symptoms were also associated with feelings of dissatisfaction with the pregnancy and motherhood experience.ConclusionsThe findings provide useful insights into women's experiences of mental health symptoms during the perinatal period, how these symptoms present and the factors involved in their development and maintenance. The need to consider women's perspectives to develop resources and health promotions strategies, as well as within the context of relationships with health professionals is highlighted. The study emphasizes the need for greater, more accurate information surrounding perinatal depression and the need to increase the profile and awareness of anxiety disorders.     

Social Indicators and Living Conditions in the Netherlands

The Dutch Social en Cultural Planning Office(SCP) monitors social changes and socialservices, evaluates social policies, givesinformation about expected developments in thefuture and gives recommendations for furtherpolicy. Key issues are the assessment ofeconomic, demographic and social changes andthe influence of these factors on the socialand living conditions of the population. TheSCP uses social and economic indicators toexamine these developments. Besidesresearching specific themes (such as socialexclusion, the consequences of long-termunemployment, the social position of theelderly and use, costs and productivity ofsocial services) the SCP has developed anoverall monitoring tool for the livingconditions: the living conditions index (LCI).Nowadays the index is composed of indicatorswhich reflect conditions in eight areas:housing, health, consumer durables, leisureactivity, sport activity, socialparticipation, mobility and holiday. In thefuture, the SCP will attempt to develop aconceptual model that will link the livingconditions index to other social indices likelivability (housing and level of services),poverty and socioeconomic deprivation.     

Divorced Fathers’ Proximity and Children’s Long-Run Outcomes: Evidence From Norwegian Registry Data

This study examines the link between divorced nonresident fathers’ proximity and children’s long-run outcomes, using high-quality data from Norwegian population registers. We follow (from birth to young adulthood) each of 15,992 children born into married households in Norway in the years 1975–1979 whose parents divorced during his or her childhood. We observe the proximity of the child to his or her father in each year following the divorce and link proximity to educational and economic outcomes for the child in young adulthood, controlling for a wide range of observable characteristics of the parents and the child. Our results show that closer proximity to the father following a divorce has, on average, a modest negative association with offspring’s outcomes in young adulthood. The negative associations are stronger among children of highly educated fathers. Complementary Norwegian survey data show that highly educated fathers report more post-divorce conflict with their ex-wives as well as more contact with their children (measured in terms of the number of nights that the child spends at the father’s house). Consequently, the father’s relocation to a more distant location following the divorce may shelter the child from disruptions in the structure of the child’s life as they split time between households and/or from post-divorce interparental conflict.