Gender Differences in the Effects of Childhood Economic Hardship on Health

• In Event: 349 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Health over the Life Course

Abstract

Health disparities among women and men in mortality and morbidity rates are well-documented, and there is longstanding debate surrounding the nature of these apparent gender differences. This study advances research on gender differences in health by conceptualizing childhood economic context as a dynamic process that may affect health in adulthood differently for men and women. Using the multi-generational design of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which allows us to use data on childhood socioeconomic environment provided prospectively by parents at the time the child was in the parental home, we examine gender differences in the effect of childhood economic hardship on multiple adult health outcomes, as well as gender differences in the role of educational attainment in mediating the relationship between childhood economic hardship and adult health. The findings demonstrate, for example, that in midlife, men and women experience diabetes and high blood pressure, two of the most important diseases impacting long-term health, at similar rates. However, the social processes leading to these diseases are quite different for men and women; overall, women’s health is vulnerable to the effects of any sustained experience of economic hardship in childhood, while for men, only long-term economic hardship predicts diabetes and high blood pressure. In addition, higher education does not mediate the relationship between childhood economic hardship and these health outcomes as it does for men.

Authors

• Nicole Etherington, University of Western Ontario

• Andrea E. Willson, University of Western Ontario

• Kim Shuey, University of Western Ontario