Stress Disparities across Educational and Occupational Typologies by Gender and Sexual Orientation

• In Event: Gender, Sexuality, and Health

Abstract

This study will investigate the relationship between typologies of education and job characteristics and midlife stress and health at the intersection of gender and sexual orientation. While significant attention has been paid to minority stress as a driver of health disparities, less is known about how these outcomes are shaped by life-course accumulations of advantage and disadvantage in education and within the labor market. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we will employ latent class analysis to identify distinct educational and occupational typologies that characterize the work lives of sexual-minority individuals compared with sexual-majority individuals. We will then examine the relationship between those typologies and disparities in midlife health, such as self-reported stress and allostatic load. Rather than relying solely on minority stress, this study will examine the interplay between educational attainment, job quality, and health to map the uneven landscape of sexual-minority labor market participation. This analysis will highlight how different clusters of education and career characteristics produce distinct—and potentially diverging—health profiles by sexual orientation and gender.

Authors

• Elia Boschetti, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Grace Venechuk, University of Chicago