The Great Recession as a Turning Point: The Effects of the 2008 Crisis on Health Disparities

• In Event: 3422 - Section on Aging and Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Disparities

Abstract

Turning points are a useful approach to life course research, as they can incorporate the five principles of the life course. In the case of health outcomes, by looking back at events in people’s lives, researchers can identify trajectory changes that occurred, in part, because of these events. Here, I focus on time and place and timing. The historical period and location of an event can have meaningful influences on outcomes. If an event is large enough in scale, it can alter an entire cohort’s trajectory and development over time.
While individuals follow a number of life courses, many share common turning points (e.g., marriage). There can also be turning points that individuals are not able to select into. Some of these can be large-scale events that have meaningful impacts and become turning points for entire cohorts. Elder found that the Great Depression had different effects and outcomes for two birth cohorts that were only seven to eight years apart in age. This difference is due to the timing of the Great Depression in these children’s lives.
This study investigates the effect of the Great Recession, or the financial crisis of 2008, on health disparities in the United States. Specifically, the project explores whether physical and mental health disparities between social classes have increased, decreased, or leveled, and whether these disparities vary between birth cohorts. Using 12 waves of the National Health Interview Survey from 2004 to 2015, I estimate mental health differences between age, sex, social class, and birth cohort before, during, and after the Great Recession. Preliminary results indicate that there is a leveling effect on mental and physical health outcomes between the lowest and highest earners, suggesting lower earners might have been better adjusted to the trying economic conditions and therefore less negatively impacted.

Author

• Miles Marsala, Duke University