Explaining the Occupational Structure of Depressive Symptoms: Precarious Work and Social Marginality across European Countries.

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.

Until work do us part: Labour migration and occupational stratification in non-cohabiting marriage.

While recent decades have seen considerable research on cohabitation without marriage, the study of marriage without cohabitation has not fared as well. Prior work on the latter has emphasized the importance of occupational stratification, but ignored the social context around occupation, particularly regarding labour mobility and economic development. In this paper, we outline the significance of contemporary labour mobility and concomitant occupational stratification for the risk of non-cohabiting marriage, and use data from the IPUMS-International project to provide a cross-national accounting of non-cohabiting marriage. We focus on two issues: first, how does prevalence vary across countries, across time, and with respect to economic development? Second, how do the core dynamics of labour mobility-including migration, occupational status, and economic development-influence the probability of non-cohabiting marriage? Results indicate broad cross-national differences in prevalence, increasing risk over time, and a pattern of accumulating risk associated with multifaceted social disadvantage.

Gender and the Politics of Death: Female Representation, Political and Developmental Context, and Population Health in a Cross-National Panel.

There is considerable speculation that female political empowerment could improve population health. Yet, evidence to date is limited, and explanations for why political empowerment would matter and the conditions under which this might be enhanced or muted are not well understood. In this article, we draw on theoretical work on the politics of representation to frame an investigation of whether increases in the percentage of females in a country's parliament influence mortality rates. We further examine whether the relationship is conditioned by extent of democracy and economic and social development. Through multivariate longitudinal regression, we analyze four indicators of mortality in 155 countries spanning 1990 to 2014 with controls for initial country conditions, time-stable structural predispositions to higher mortality, and a number of time-varying potential confounders. Results indicate that a high level of female representation-30 % or greater in our models-has large negative associations with mortality, that these are particularly strong in lesser developed and weak democratic contexts, that high female political representation effectively offsets liabilities associated with low development, and that the relationships are robust to various operationalizations of social development. In the end, our research provides a particularly thorough accounting of the relationship between female political representation and population health, particularly by specifying the conditions under which female representation is most salient. In doing so, the research suggests important links between issues of female empowerment, political context, and developmental trajectories of countries more generally.

Parental and adolescent health behaviors and pathways to adulthood.

This paper examines associations among parental and adolescent health behaviors and pathways to adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we identify a set of latent classes describing pathways into adulthood and examine health-related predictors of these pathways. The identified pathways are consistent with prior research using other sources of data. Results also show that both adolescent and parental health behaviors differentiate pathways. Parental and adolescent smoking are associated with lowered probability of the higher education pathway and higher likelihood of the work and the work & family pathways (entry into the workforce soon after high school completion). Adolescent drinking is positively associated with the work pathway and the higher education pathway, but decreases the likelihood of the work & family pathway. Neither parental nor adolescent obesity are associated with any of the pathways to adulthood. When combined, parental/adolescent smoking and adolescent drinking are associated with displacement from the basic institutions of school, work, and family.

The association between parent's health and the educational attainment of their children.

In this paper we compare the educational attainment of adults who had relatively unhealthy parents when they were adolescents to those whose parents were relatively healthy during this time of their lives. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 13,556) to show that U.S. adolescents whose parents described their health as "fair" or "poor" at Wave 1 of the study were more likely to drop out of high school compared to those whose parents reported better levels of health. We do not observe any association between parental health and the likelihood of attending college among those who graduated from high school, however we do show that completing college (among college attendees) is more likely among those whose parents reported better health when they were adolescents. This association persists despite a wide range of statistical controls including socioeconomic status of the household, the physical and mental health status of the respondent, the grade point average of the respondent, the health behaviors of parents, as well as parental time investment. These findings add an important intergenerational component to research on the relationship between socioeconomic status and health.

A life course model of self-rated health through adolescence and young adulthood.

This paper proposes and tests a life course model of self-rated health (SRH) extending from late childhood to young adulthood, drawing on three waves of panel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Very little research has examined SRH during the early decades, or whether and how these self-assessments reflect experiences in the family of origin. Background characteristics (parental education, income, and family structure), parental health conditions (asthma, diabetes, obesity, migraines), and early health challenges (physical abuse, presence of a disability, and parental alcoholism and smoking) predict SRH from adolescence to young adulthood. These experiences in the family-of-origin are substantially mediated by the young person's health and health behaviors (as indicated by obesity, depression, smoking, drinking, and inactivity), although direct effects remain (especially for early health challenges). Associations between SRH and these mediators (especially obesity) strengthen with age. In turn, efforts to promote healthy behaviors in young adulthood, after the completion of secondary school, may be especially strategic in the promotion of health in later adulthood.

Trends in the association of obesity and self-reported overall health in 30 years of the Integrated Health Interview Series.

This research examines trends in the relationship between obesity based on self-report height and weight and self-perceived health over a 30-year period. Importantly, this period included the articulation of comprehensive public health campaigns on excess weight and thus provides opportunities for assessment of the efficacy of the campaign, as well as the broader psycho-social impact of excess weight. Using novel data from the Integrated Health Interview Series, odds ratios for the association between obesity and self-perceived health were estimated for repeated cross-sectional samples that are nationally representative of noninstitutionalized American adults aged 18-85 and older spanning 1976-2006. Our findings show that (i) there are weak associations between obesity and self-perceived poor health; (ii) these associations are particularly small among men, often to the point of being nonexistent; and (iii) weak relationships for both men and women have remained virtually unchanged over the past 30 years. Several reasons why the public health campaign around excess weight has had limited traction are discussed including the collective problem of excess weight in America and how this undermines current approaches in public health efforts addressing excess weight.

Patterns of intimate partner violence and their associations with physical health, psychological distress, and substance use.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this work is to formally model patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) separately for males and females and to assess the unique contributions of different types of violence exposure to health related outcomes. METHODS: Using data from the National Violence Against Women Survey--a national probability sample of U.S. men and women--latent class analyses produced a map of the underlying structure of IPV for both males and females that is defined by specific types of violent acts. Multivariable logistic regression analyses assessed the differential physical health, mental health, and substance use consequences of exposure to IPV by gender. RESULTS: Women and men experience similar types of IPV, although the prevalence of the different types of violence is much greater for women than men. Second, exposure to IPV for both women and men is associated with a range of negative health outcomes including increased odds of poor physical health and physical disability, psychological distress and mental illness, and heightened recreational and non-recreational substance use. Finally, there is some evidence that experiences with IPV have stronger and broader associations with negative health outcomes among women, likely reflecting differences in the severity of violence experienced by men and women. CONCLUSIONS: More attention to the ways in which interpersonal violence is conceptualized, measured, and screened for is crucial. Specifically, while women have greater exposure to IPV, and subsequently a greater range of health problems, the effects on men should not be ignored.

Linked lives: stability and change in maternal circumstances and trajectories of antisocial behavior in children.

Drawing on the notion of linked lives, this study examined the effects of stability and change in maternal circumstance on developmental trajectories of antisocial behavior in children 4 to 7 years of age. Using data from a national sample of young mothers and growth curve analysis, the study demonstrated that early maternal circumstances influences early antisocial behavior, whereas stability and change in these circumstances both exacerbate and ameliorate behavior problems. Of particular note, meaningful escape from poverty attenuates antisocial behavior whereas persistence in poverty or long-term movement into poverty intensifies such problems. These findings highlight the importance of structural context for parenting practices and the need to consider child development in light of dynamic and changing life-course fortunes of parents.