3-016 - Differential Effects of Socioeconomic Contexts Over Time and Over Individuals on Health and Educational Attainment

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Data from epidemiological, quasi-experimental, and randomized control trials show that youth growing up in socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances are at risk for emotional and behavioral health problems, poor physical health, and reduced social mobility. The papers included in this symposium use nationally representative data from the United States to extend these findings and to draw policy-relevant conclusions about the role of SES in health and educational attainment. The first paper shows that income in multiple proximal contexts in adolescence is prospectively associated with adult mental and behavioral health. The second paper documents secular trends in the association between SES and adolescent mental health from 1989 to 2015 and shows that SES gaps in adolescent mental health across multiple contexts have been growing in recent years in the United States. The final paper uses sibling mixed effect models to identify individual-level influences on educational attainment and shows that these are moderated by family-level socioeconomic circumstances. The analytic approaches used in these papers, including sibling comparisons and models of secular change, isolate environmental effects on outcomes and rule out alternative, genetic explanations for variation in outcomes. The most novel findings from these papers highlight the interplay among levels of social ecology whereby SES functions additively and interactively across individual and contextual levels to promote and inhibit positive development.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Sara Jaffee, University of Pennsylvania

Individual Presentations

• Examining Economic Risks in Adolescents’ Families, Schools, and Neighborhoods: Implications for Mental and Behavioral Health - Presenting Author: Jacqueline Prince Sims, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: Rebekah Levine Coley, Boston College

• Socioeconomic Disparities in Adolescent Mental Health Problems: Secular Trends from 1989 through 2016 - Non-Presenting Author: Rebekah Levine Coley, Boston College; Presenting Author: Michael O'Brien, Boston College; Non-Presenting Author: Bryn Spielvogel, Boston College

• Socioeconomic Disadvantage Limits Benefits of Optimistic Expectations for Educational Attainment: A Sibling Comparison Study - Presenting Author: Lauren Brumley, University of Pennsylvania; Non-Presenting Author: Sara Jaffee, University of Pennsylvania