Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States

The contemporaneous association between higher socioeconomic position and better health is well established. Life course research has also demonstrated a lasting effect of childhood socioeconomic conditions on adult health and well-being. Yet, little is known about the separate health effects of int...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alexi Gugushvili, Grzegorz Bulczak, Olga Zelinska, Jonathan Koltai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336836/?tool=EBI
id doaj-89c3db56bf1a4c069940b3b167792b0e
record_format Article
spelling doaj-89c3db56bf1a4c069940b3b167792b0e2021-08-08T04:31:50ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-01168Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United StatesAlexi GugushviliGrzegorz BulczakOlga ZelinskaJonathan KoltaiThe contemporaneous association between higher socioeconomic position and better health is well established. Life course research has also demonstrated a lasting effect of childhood socioeconomic conditions on adult health and well-being. Yet, little is known about the separate health effects of intergenerational mobility—moving into a different socioeconomic position than one’s parents—among early adults in the United States. Most studies on the health implications of mobility rely on cross-sectional datasets, which makes it impossible to differentiate between health selection and social causation effects. In addition, understanding the effects of social mobility on health at a relatively young age has been hampered by the paucity of health measures that reliably predict disease onset. Analysing 4,713 respondents aged 25 to 32 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health’s Waves I and IV, we use diagonal reference models to separately identify the effects of socioeconomic origin and destination, as well as social mobility on allostatic load among individuals in the United States. Using a combined measure of educational and occupational attainment, and accounting for individuals’ initial health, we demonstrate that in addition to health gradient among the socially immobile, individuals’ socioeconomic origin and destination are equally important for multi-system physiological dysregulation. Short-range upward mobility also has a positive and significant association with health. After mitigating health selection concerns in our observational data, this effect is observed only among those reporting poor health before experiencing social mobility. Our findings move towards the reconciliation of two theoretical perspectives, confirming the positive effect of upward mobility as predicted by the “rags to riches” perspective, while not contradicting potential costs associated with more extensive upward mobility experiences as predicted by the dissociative thesis.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336836/?tool=EBI
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Alexi Gugushvili
Grzegorz Bulczak
Olga Zelinska
Jonathan Koltai
spellingShingle Alexi Gugushvili
Grzegorz Bulczak
Olga Zelinska
Jonathan Koltai
Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States
PLoS ONE
author_facet Alexi Gugushvili
Grzegorz Bulczak
Olga Zelinska
Jonathan Koltai
author_sort Alexi Gugushvili
title Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States
title_short Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States
title_full Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States
title_fullStr Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the United States
title_sort socioeconomic position, social mobility, and health selection effects on allostatic load in the united states
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2021-01-01
description The contemporaneous association between higher socioeconomic position and better health is well established. Life course research has also demonstrated a lasting effect of childhood socioeconomic conditions on adult health and well-being. Yet, little is known about the separate health effects of intergenerational mobility—moving into a different socioeconomic position than one’s parents—among early adults in the United States. Most studies on the health implications of mobility rely on cross-sectional datasets, which makes it impossible to differentiate between health selection and social causation effects. In addition, understanding the effects of social mobility on health at a relatively young age has been hampered by the paucity of health measures that reliably predict disease onset. Analysing 4,713 respondents aged 25 to 32 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health’s Waves I and IV, we use diagonal reference models to separately identify the effects of socioeconomic origin and destination, as well as social mobility on allostatic load among individuals in the United States. Using a combined measure of educational and occupational attainment, and accounting for individuals’ initial health, we demonstrate that in addition to health gradient among the socially immobile, individuals’ socioeconomic origin and destination are equally important for multi-system physiological dysregulation. Short-range upward mobility also has a positive and significant association with health. After mitigating health selection concerns in our observational data, this effect is observed only among those reporting poor health before experiencing social mobility. Our findings move towards the reconciliation of two theoretical perspectives, confirming the positive effect of upward mobility as predicted by the “rags to riches” perspective, while not contradicting potential costs associated with more extensive upward mobility experiences as predicted by the dissociative thesis.
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336836/?tool=EBI
work_keys_str_mv AT alexigugushvili socioeconomicpositionsocialmobilityandhealthselectioneffectsonallostaticloadintheunitedstates
AT grzegorzbulczak socioeconomicpositionsocialmobilityandhealthselectioneffectsonallostaticloadintheunitedstates
AT olgazelinska socioeconomicpositionsocialmobilityandhealthselectioneffectsonallostaticloadintheunitedstates
AT jonathankoltai socioeconomicpositionsocialmobilityandhealthselectioneffectsonallostaticloadintheunitedstates
_version_ 1721216508595535872