Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Variations in the Transition to Parenthood and Change in Health Risk Indicators

• In Event: 343 - Regular Session. Parenthood 2

Abstract

Despite decades of work that confirm the important influence of parenthood on health risk indicators among both men and women, scholars have hardly considered how the association between parenthood and change in health risk indicators might vary across important markers of social stratification, such as socioeconomic status or race/ethnicity. In this paper, I utilize four waves of panel data and fixed effects regression to analyze whether socioeconomic status and/or race/ethnicity moderate the impact of parenthood on body mass index, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, and marijuana use. Overall, my results indicate that parenthood is associated with fewer health benefits for blacks and those with low socioeconomic status versus their nonblack and more advantaged counterparts, and that these patterns are more prominent among women than men.

Author

• Rhiannon A. Kroeger, University of Texas-Austin