Socioeconomic disadvantage and adult mental health: Examining cumulative and timing effects across socioeconomic contexts

• In Event: Disrupting Health Inequities Across the Life Course (Co-sponsored by Aging and the Life Course Section)

Abstract

Mental health outcomes in later life are shaped by adverse experiences and conditions in early life. However, there is limited empirical investigation into time-dependent exposure-outcome relationships. This study focuses on socioeconomic adversities because they have far-reaching implications for health and inequality. Specifically, this study asks the following question: when do different SES-based disadvantages—exposure to poverty, financial strain, and blue-collar occupation—matter most in explaining mental health outcomes in adulthood? Using survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and employing a two-stage structured life course modeling approach, I test three hypotheses—sensitive periods, accumulation, and recency. My analysis yields three findings: (1) the recency model provides the best fit for the effects of financial strain on depressive symptoms and substance use, as well as for the effect of blue-collar occupation on substance use. (2) depressive symptoms were best predicted by the timing of poverty, specifically exposure during mid-adulthood. (3) in the first stage, exposure at wave 4 (young adulthood) best explains the observed associations between blue-collar occupation and depressive symptoms, and poverty and substance use, but these associations become non-significant after adjusting for adult SES. These findings highlight adulthood as a particularly consequential period, during which individuals’ own statuses and identities are established. SES adversities may operate differently from acute stressors such as maltreatment; as long as parents are able to provide some degree of shielding, these adversities are less about long-term scarring and more about proximal exposure.

Author

• Eun Hye Lee, Indiana University-Bloomington