Children's Sense of Control as a Determinant of Adult Health: Causation, Mediation, and Spuriousness.

Previous research suggests higher levels of education instill a greater sense of internal control that promotes health in adulthood. We propose that the sense of control has its origins in early childhood and that prior research has possibly misattributed a mediational role to sense of control in adulthood. Using a conceptual framework that includes these early influences, we employ data from the 1970 British Cohort Study ( N = 9,855), examining the extent to which the association between education and adult health is spurious due to these early childhood factors. We find that the internal sense of control as assessed in childhood and adolescence has profound influences on both education and health in early adulthood and that a substantial portion of the latter association is spurious. We conclude that the sense of control is an important health-related factor originating early in life, influencing both health and education later in adulthood.

Integrating varieties of life course concepts.

A body of work referred to as the "life course" framework (also known as "life course theory," the "life course paradigm," and the "life course perspective") has been increasingly used to motivate and justify the examination of the relationships among variables in social and behavioral science, particularly in the study of population health and aging. Yet, there is very little agreement on what some of these concepts mean, and there is hardly any agreement on what the "life course" is. This article focuses on the different ways in which the concept of "life course" is used in the contemporary study of aging and human development, particularly with regard to health and well-being. Clarification is given for how "life course" is distinguished from "life span" and "life cycle," among other "life" words. This work reviews the conceptual literature on the life course, beginning with its formative years in the 1960s and 1970s, through to the present time. Detailed research of several literatures across disciplines revealed five different uses of the term "life course": (a) life course as time or age, (b) life course as life stages, (c) life course as events, transitions, and trajectories, (d) life course as life-span human development, and (e) life course as early life influences (and their cumulation) on later adult outcomes. To the extent the concept of life course has a multiplicity of meanings that are at variance with one another, this is problematic, as communication is thereby hindered. On the other hand, to the extent the concept of life course involves a rich tapestry of different emphases, this is a good thing, and the diversity of meanings should be retained. This paper proposes a conceptual integration based in part on Riley's age stratification model that resolves the various meanings of life course into one general framework. Coupled with a demographic conceptualization of the life course, this framework embeds the concept of "life course" within a broader perspective of life-span development. This framework is proposed as an integrated perspective for studying the causes and consequences of "life course events and transitions" and understanding the manner by which "life events" and the role transitions they signify influence the life-span development of outcomes of interest across stages of the life cycle.

Social status, risky health behaviors, and diabetes in middle-aged and older adults.

OBJECTIVE: This article investigates: (a) how social status influences diabetes prevalence and incidence; (b) how risky health behaviors contribute to the prediction of incident diabetes; (c) if the effects of health behaviors mediate the effects of social status on incident diabetes; and (d) if these effects differ in midlife and older age. METHODS: We examined nationally representative data from the 1992/1993-1998 panels of the Health and Retirement Study for middle-aged and older adults using logistic regression analyses. RESULT: The odds of prevalent diabetes were higher for people of older age, men, Black adults, and Latino adults. Higher early-life social status (e.g., parental schooling) and achieved social status (e.g., respondent schooling, economic resources) reduced the odds in both age groups. We observed similar patterns for incident diabetes in midlife but not in older age. Risky health behaviors--particularly obesity--increased the odds of incident diabetes in both age groups independent of social status. The increased odds of incident diabetes in midlife persisted for Black and Latino adults net of other social status factors. DISCUSSION: Risky health behaviors are key predictors of incident diabetes in both age groups. Economic resources also play an important protective role in incident diabetes in midlife but not in older age.

A life-span developmental perspective on social status and health.

This article presents a life-span developmental (LSD) perspective on the linkages between social status and health. The objective is to develop a conceptual framework that is useful in understanding why people are differentially exposed to risks of disease or protective factors and the social conditions that link the effects of risk and protective factors to the social environment over the life span. The discussion distinguishes between the complementary concepts of "life span," "life cycle," and "life course," critical theoretical distinctions that may help refine hypotheses about the relationship between health and social status. We argue that life-cycle and life-course concepts can be viewed as embedded in a more general LSD perspective. Using the theoretical principles derived from this perspective, the review examines (a) gender differences, (b) race-ethnic experiences, (c) childhood experiences, (d) educational levels, (e) socioeconomic differences, and (f) age differences. The emphasis in the review is to highlight the value of a broader LSD perspective in the study of health inequalities. The article ends with a brief summary of where future research is headed and novel developments in the study of social status and health.

Social status and risky health behaviors: results from the health and retirement study.

OBJECTIVES: We focus on a hypothesized mechanism that may underlie the well-documented link between social status and health-behavioral health risks. METHODS: We use longitudinal data from representative samples of 6,106 middle-aged and 3,636 older adults from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the relationships between social status-including early life social status (e.g., parental schooling), ascribed social status (e.g., sex, race-ethnicity), and achieved social status (e.g., schooling, economic resources)-and behavioral health risks (e.g., weight, smoking, drinking, physical activity) to (1) assess how early life and ascribed social statuses are linked to behavioral health risks, (2) investigate the role of achieved factors in behavioral health risks, (3) test whether achieved status explains the contributions of early life and ascribed status, and (4) examine whether the social status and health risk relationships differ at midlife and older age. RESULTS: We find that early life, achieved, and ascribed social statuses strongly predict behavioral health risks, although the effects are stronger in midlife than they are in older age. DISCUSSION: Ascribed social statuses (and interactions of sex and race-ethnicity), which are important predictors of behavioral health risks even net of early life and achieved social status, should be explored in future research.