Intergenerational Changes and Health: The Effect of Downward Educational Mobility

• In Event: 499 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Family Relationships and Social Support

Abstract

Family of origin socioeconomic status (or early-life SES) affects SES and health in adulthood; however, dynamic socioeconomic stratification processes over the life course warrant a more nuanced understanding of the social determinants of health. By integrating a life course perspective, I aim to frame differential health outcomes as the result of cumulative advantages and disadvantages experienced in childhood and adulthood. In the context of education expansion, this study examines the benefits to health for upwardly mobile individuals with respect to education, and more importantly, the detriments to health for downwardly mobile individuals with respect to education.

Using the 2012 data from the General Social Survey, I examine the association between intergenerational education mobility (respondent’s educational attainment compared to mother’s educational attainment) and respondent’s self-rated health. By estimating binomial logistic regression models of self-rated health, I find that completing less years of education than your mother (decreasing educational mobility) increases the likelihood of reporting fair or poor health, net of sex, race, age, and income. This relationship between downward educational mobility and fair or poor health is true for those in the lowest income quartile and for men, all else constant. In an era where an increasing number of Americans are completing higher levels of education, this study illuminates the detrimental effects on health for those who are left behind.

Author

• Rachel Donnelly, University of Texas-Austin