Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility.

Social capital-the strength of an individual's social network and community-has been identified as a potential determinant of outcomes ranging from education to health1-8. However, efforts to understand what types of social capital matter for these outcomes have been hindered by a lack of social network data. Here, in the first of a pair of papers9, we use data on 21 billion friendships from Facebook to study social capital. We measure and analyse three types of social capital by ZIP (postal) code in the United States: (1) connectedness between different types of people, such as those with low versus high socioeconomic status (SES); (2) social cohesion, such as the extent of cliques in friendship networks; and (3) civic engagement, such as rates of volunteering. These measures vary substantially across areas, but are not highly correlated with each other. We demonstrate the importance of distinguishing these forms of social capital by analysing their associations with economic mobility across areas. The share of high-SES friends among individuals with low SES-which we term economic connectedness-is among the strongest predictors of upward income mobility identified to date10,11. Other social capital measures are not strongly associated with economic mobility. If children with low-SES parents were to grow up in counties with economic connectedness comparable to that of the average child with high-SES parents, their incomes in adulthood would increase by 20% on average. Differences in economic connectedness can explain well-known relationships between upward income mobility and racial segregation, poverty rates, and inequality12-14. To support further research and policy interventions, we publicly release privacy-protected statistics on social capital by ZIP code at https://www.socialcapital.org .

Trends in social mobility in postrevolution China.

In this paper, we study long-term trends in social mobility in the People's Republic of China since its inception in 1949, with two operationalizations: 1) intergenerational occupational mobility and 2) intergenerational educational mobility. We draw on an accumulation of administrative and survey data and provide comparable estimates of these measures for birth cohorts born after 1945. To help interpret the results, we compare trends in China to those in the United States for the same birth cohorts. We find an increase in intergenerational occupational mobility in China due to its rapid industrialization in recent decades. Net of industrialization, however, intergenerational occupational mobility has been declining for recent cohorts. Intergenerational educational mobility in China shows a similar declining trend. In addition, mobility patterns have differed greatly by gender, with women in earlier cohorts and from a rural origin particularly disadvantaged. We attribute the general decline in social mobility to market forces that have taken hold since China's economic reform that began in 1978. In contrast, social mobility by both measures has been relatively stable in the United States. However, while social mobility in China has trended downward, it is still higher than that in the United States, except for women's educational mobility.

Depression predictions from GPS-based mobility do not generalize well to large demographically heterogeneous samples.

Depression is one of the most common mental health issues in the United States, affecting the lives of millions of people suffering from it as well as those close to them. Recent advances in research on mobile sensing technologies and machine learning have suggested that a person's depression can be passively measured by observing patterns in people's mobility behaviors. However, the majority of work in this area has relied on highly homogeneous samples, most frequently college students. In this study, we analyse over 57 million GPS data points to show that the same procedure that leads to high prediction accuracy in a homogeneous student sample (N = 57; AUC = 0.82), leads to accuracies only slightly higher than chance in a U.S.-wide sample that is heterogeneous in its socio-demographic composition as well as mobility patterns (N = 5,262; AUC = 0.57). This pattern holds across three different modelling approaches which consider both linear and non-linear relationships. Further analyses suggest that the prediction accuracy is low across different socio-demographic groups, and that training the models on more homogeneous subsamples does not substantially improve prediction accuracy. Overall, the findings highlight the challenge of applying mobility-based predictions of depression at scale.

The Effect of Childhood Socioeconomic Position and Social Mobility on Cognitive Function and Change Among Older Adults: A Comparison Between the United States and England.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to examine the relationship between childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) and cognitive function in later life within nationally representative samples of older adults in the United States and England, investigate whether these effects are mediated by later-life SEP, and determine whether social mobility from childhood to adulthood affects cognitive function and decline. METHOD: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (ELSA), we examined the relationships between measures of SEP, cognitive performance and decline using individual growth curve models. RESULTS: High childhood SEP was associated with higher cognitive performance at baseline in both cohorts and did not affect the rate of decline. This benefit dissipated after adjusting for education and adult wealth in the United States. Respondents with low childhood SEP, above median education, and high adult SEP had better cognitive performance at baseline than respondents with a similar childhood background and less upward mobility in both countries. DISCUSSION: These findings emphasize the impact of childhood SEP on cognitive trajectories among older adults. Upward mobility may partially compensate for disadvantage early in life but does not protect against cognitive decline.

Políticas públicas e mobilidade social: egressos do Programa Universidade para todos (PROUNI) / Public policies and social mobility: students of University for all Program (PROUNI) / Políticas públicas y movilidad social: egresos del Programa Universidad para todos (PROUNI)

A educação tem se mostrado uma importante ferramenta de transformação social. A partir dessa compreensão, políticas públicas para acesso ao ensino superior têm sido desenvolvidas no Brasil com o objetivo de promover igualdade social. O Programa Universidade para Todos (PROUNI) é direcionado a estudantes com renda familiar de até três salários mínimos e atinge um número crescente de estudantes. Este estudo objetivou averiguar a ascensão desses estudantes beneficiados pelo PROUNI, envolvendo três dimensões: satisfação profissional, econômica e pessoal. Para tanto, foram contatados 1200 alunos egressos de uma Universidade privada que foram beneficiados pelo PROUNI. Os questionários foram enviados por e-mail e foram obtidas 212 respostas. A análise foi realizada por meio de estatística descritiva e relacional. Os resultados indicam que a graduação universitária através do PROUNI propiciou mobilidade social ascendente. A maioria dos entrevistados declarou que obteve melhorias em sua vida, tanto nos aspectos pessoais, profissionais e econômicos, o que ressalta a importância da existência de políticas públicas voltadas ao acesso à educação

Education has proved to be an important tool for social transformation. From this understanding, public policies for access to higher education have been developed in Brazil with the aim of promoting social equality. The University for All Program (PROUNI) is aimed at students with a family income of up to three minimum salaries and reaches an increasing number of students. This study aimed to ascertain the rise of these students benefited by PROUNI, involving three dimensions: professional, economic and personal satisfaction. For this purpose, 1,200 students from a private university who were benefited by PROUNI were contacted. The questionnaires were sent by e-mail and 212 responses were obtained. The analysis was performed using descriptive and relational statistics. The results indicate that university graduation through PROUNI provided upward social mobility. Most interviewees stated that they have made improvements in their lives, both in personal, professional and economic aspects. What stands out the importance of the existence of public policies focused on access to education.

La educación se ha mostrado una importante herramienta de transformación social. A partir de esa comprensión, políticas públicas para acceso a la enseñanza superior se han desarrollado en Brasil con el objetivo de promover igualdad social. El programa Universidad para Todos (PROUNI) es dirigido a estudiantes con ingresos familiares de hasta tres salarios mínimos y alcanza un número creciente de estudiantes. Este estudio objetivó averiguar el ascenso de esos estudiantes beneficiados por el PROUNI, involucrando tres dimensiones: satisfacción profesional, económica y personal. Para ello se contactaron a 1200 alumnos egresados ​​de una Universidad privada que fueron beneficiados por el PROUNI. Los cuestionarios fueron enviados por e-mail y se obtuvieron 212 respuestas. El análisis fue realizado por medio de estadística descriptiva y relacional. Los resultados indican que la graduación universitaria a través del PROUNI propició movilidad social ascendente. La mayoría de los encuestados declaró que obtuvo mejoras en su vida, tanto en los aspectos personales, profesionales y económicos. Lo que resalta la importancia de la existencia de políticas públicas dirigidas al acceso a la educación.

Intragenerational social mobility and self-rated oral health in the british cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Most studies on social mobility and oral health have focused on movement between generations (intergenerational mobility) rather than movement within an individual's own lifetime (intragenerational mobility). The aim of this study was to investigate the association between intragenerational social mobility from early to middle adulthood and self-rated oral health. METHODS: This study used data from 6524 participants of the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study, an ongoing population-based birth cohort of individuals born in England, Scotland and Wales. Participants' socioeconomic position was indicated by occupational social class at age 26 and 46 years (the first and latest adult waves, respectively). Self-rated oral health was measured at age 46 years. The association between social mobility and adult oral health was assessed using conventional regression models and diagonal reference models, adjusting for gender, ethnicity, country of residence and residence area. RESULTS: Over a fifth of participants (22.2%) reported poor self-rated oral health at age 46 years. In conventional regression analysis, the odds ratios for social mobility varied depending on whether they were adjusted for social class of origin or destination. In addition, all social trajectories had greater odds of reporting poor oral health than non-mobile adults in class I/II. In diagonal reference models, both upward (Odds Ratio 0.79; 95% CI 0.63-0.99) and downward mobility (0.90; 95% CI 0.71-1.13) were inversely associated with poor self-rated oral health. The origin weight was 0.48 (95% CI 0.33-0.63), suggesting that social class of origin was as important as social class of destination. CONCLUSION: This longitudinal analysis showed that intragenerational social mobility from young to middle adulthood was associated with self-rated oral health, independent of previous and current social class.

Countrywide population movement monitoring using mobile devices generated (big) data during the COVID-19 crisis.

Mobile phones have been used to monitor mobility changes during the COVID-19 pandemic but surprisingly few studies addressed in detail the implementation of practical applications involving whole populations. We report a method of generating a "mobility-index" and a "stay-at-home/resting-index" based on aggregated anonymous Call Detail Records of almost all subscribers in Hungary, which tracks all phones, examining their strengths and weaknesses, comparing it with Community Mobility Reports from Google, limited to smartphone data. The impact of policy changes, such as school closures, could be identified with sufficient granularity to capture a rush to shops prior to imposition of restrictions. Anecdotal reports of large scale movement of Hungarians to holiday homes were confirmed. At the national level, our results correlated well with Google mobility data, but there were some differences at weekends and national holidays, which can be explained by methodological differences. Mobile phones offer a means to analyse population movement but there are several technical and privacy issues. Overcoming these, our method is a practical and inexpensive way forward, achieving high levels of accuracy and resolution, especially where uptake of smartphones is modest, although it is not an alternative to smartphone-based solutions used for contact tracing and quarantine monitoring.

Life chances after surgery of congenital heart disease: A case-control-study of inter- and intragenerational social mobility over 15 years.

BACKGROUND: Patients of congenital heart disease surgery have good prospects for reaching old age. Against the backdrop of increasing life expectancies, the question of how well such patients are mastering daily routines and their working life emerges. In our study, the educational and occupational performance of patients over 15 years was examined. METHODS: Intergenerational social mobility (changes in social positions from the parental generation to the generation of children) was examined in terms of education, and intragenerational social mobility (changes in positions within the same generation, i.e., in individuals over their life courses) was examined in terms of occupational positions. Comparisons were made between patients and a control group drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Controls were drawn from respondents who participated in the 2004 and 2018 SOEP surveys. RESULTS: The data were from 244 out of 360 patients (68%) with complete social data from the first survey (2003-2004) and who were included in the follow-up (2017-2019), and 238 controls were drawn from the SOEP. At the time of the second survey, subjects' ages ranged from 28 to 59 years of age (M = 40.1 years). Intergenerational educational mobility did not differ between cases and controls. For intragenerational social mobility, downward changes were more frequent among controls. This latter finding may be explained by patients retiring earlier than the general population. Retirement rates increased over time, particularly among patients with severe congenital malformations. Unemployment rates were also higher among patients. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, although a considerable proportion of patients with congenital heart disease retired prematurely or never entered the labour force, their educational and occupational careers proceeded more favourably than expected.

Life Course Socioeconomic Position, Intergenerational Social Mobility, and Hypertension Incidence in ELSA-Brasil.

BACKGROUND: Life course epidemiology is a powerful framework to unravel the role of socioeconomic position (SEP) disparities in hypertension (HTN). This study investigated whether life course SEP is associated with HTN incidence. Specifically, to test whether cumulative low SEP throughout life and unfavorable intergenerational social mobility increased HTN incidence. METHODS: Longitudinal analysis of 8,754 ELSA-Brasil participants without HTN or cardiovascular in visit 1 (2008-2010). The response variable was the incidence of HTN between visits 1 and 2 (2012-2014). The explanatory variables were childhood, youth, and adulthood SEP, cumulative low SEP, and intergenerational social mobility. Associations were estimated by incidence rate ratios (IRRs) obtained by generalized linear models, with Poisson distribution and logarithmic link function, after adjustment for sociodemographic, behavioral, and health factors. RESULTS: The incidence of HTN was 43.2/1,000 person-years, being higher in males, elderly (70-74 years), self-declared black, and low SEP individuals. After considering sociodemographic factors, low SEP in childhood, youth, and adulthood remained statistically associated with increased HTN incidence. Individuals in the third (IRR: 1.26; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11-1.44) and fourth top quartiles (IRR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.11-1.49) of cumulative low SEP, vs. first, as well as those with low stable intergenerational trajectory (IRR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.16-1.43), vs. high stable, also had increased HTN incidence rates. CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic disparities at all phases of the life cycle appear to raise HTN incidence rates, being the individuals with greater accumulation of exposure to low SEP and with more unfavorable intergenerational mobility at greatest risk, even in a short follow-up time.

The dual effect of social ties on COVID-19 spread in Japan.

We investigate why some communities experience worse COVID-19 outcomes than others. Past studies have linked the resilience of communities against crisis to social vulnerability and the capacity of local governments to provide public goods and services like health care. Disaster studies, which frequently examine the effect of social ties and mobility, may better help illuminate the current spread of COVID-19. We analyze Japan's 47 prefectures from February 12 to August 31 using 62,722 individual confirmed cases of COVID-19, paired with daily tallies of aggregate Facebook user movement among neighborhoods. Controlling for mobility levels, health care systems, government finance, gender balance, age, income, and education levels of communities, our analysis indicates that areas with strong linking social ties see no or far lower levels of COVID-19 case rates initially. However, case fatality rates rise in such communities once the disease enters as they lack horizontal (bonding) ties which can mitigate its health impacts. We anticipate this study to be a starting point for broader studies of how social ties and mobility influence COVID-19 outcomes worldwide along with shining a light on how different types of social relationships play different roles as a crisis or disaster progresses.

Evolución de la estructura de clases y el bienestar material en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires contemporánea (2004-2015) / Evolution of class structure and material well-being in the contemporary City of Buenos Aires (2004-2015)

En este artículo analizamos los rasgos que asumió la estructura de clases de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA) en el período 2004-2015. Utilizando como fuente de datos, principalmente, la Encuesta Anual de Hogares (EAH) relevada anualmente por la Dirección General de Estadística y Censos del Gobierno de la CABA, nos preguntamos acerca de cómo han evolucionado las clases sociales en términos de tamaño y composición, y cuánto se han distanciado o acercado respecto al bienestar material de los hogares que las conforman. Del análisis de los datos se desprende que la estructura de clases mantiene la configuración signada durante los años noventa, aunque con una relativa composición de la clase obrera calificada y la clase directivo-profesional. Por otro lado, el estudio de los ingresos y el acceso a la vivienda, en tanto dos activos del bienestar material de los hogares, muestra cierta reducción de la desigualdad respecto al primero, pero un fortalecimiento en las brechas respecto a la propiedad de la vivienda. (AU)

Class Status and Social Mobility on Tobacco Smoking in Post-Reform China Between 1991 and 2011.

INTRODUCTION: There is growing attention to social mobility's impact on tobacco use, but few studies have differentiated the two conceptually distinct mechanisms through which changes in social class can affect tobacco smoking: the class status effect and the mobility effect. AIMS AND METHODS: I applied Diagonal Reference Modeling to smoking and heavy smoking among respondents of the 1991 China Health and Nutrition Survey who were revisited two decades later in 2011 (n = 3841, 49% male, baseline mean age was 38 years). I divided the sample into six social classes (non-employment, self-employed, owners, workers, farmers, and retirees) and measured social mobility by changes in income and occupational prestige. RESULTS: About 61.7% of men were smokers and those from the classes of workers, owners, and self-employees consumed more cigarettes compared to the unemployed, but women smokers (3.7%) tend to be from the lower classes (unemployed and farmers). Controlling for social class, each 1000 Yuan increase in annual income led to smoking 0.03 more cigarettes (p < .05) and 1% increase (p < .05) in the likelihood of heavy smoking among men, but the income effect is null for women. Upwardly mobile men (a 10-points surge in occupational prestige) smoked like their destination class (weight = 78%), whereas men with downward mobility were more similar to peers in the original class (weight = 60%). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to the social gradient in smoking in other industrial countries, higher class status and upward mobility are each associated with more smoking among Chinese men, but not among women. IMPLICATIONS: Tobacco control policies should prioritize male smoking at workplaces and the instrumental purposes of using tobacco as gifts and social lubricant. Taxation may counter the surge in smoking brought by individuals' income increase after upward mobility. Caution should be paid to women joining the similar social gradient in smoking as they gain foothold in the labor market.

Understanding the mobility chances of children from working-class backgrounds in Britain: How important are cognitive ability and locus of control?

Research in social stratification has shown that children from working-class backgrounds tend to obtain substantially lower levels of educational attainment and lower labor market positions than children from higher social class backgrounds. However, we still know relatively little about the micro-level processes that account for this empirical regularity. Our study examines the roles of two individual-level characteristics-cognitive ability and locus of control-in mediating the effect of individuals' parental class background on their educational attainment and social class position in Britain. We find that cognitive ability mediates only about 35% of the total parental class effect on educational attainment and only about 20% of the total parental class effect on respondents' social class position, net of their educational attainment. These findings contradict existing claims that differences in the life chances of children from different social class backgrounds are largely due to differences in cognitive ability. Moreover, we find that although individuals' locus of control plays some role in mediating the parental class effect, its role is substantially smaller than the mediating role of cognitive ability. We measure individuals' social class positions at different points in their careers-at labor market entry and at occupational maturity-and find that the mediating roles of cognitive ability and locus of control are remarkably stable across individuals' working lives.

Sick leave absence and the relationship between intra-generational social mobility and mortality: health selection in Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Poor health could influence how individuals are sorted into occupational classes. Health selection has therefore been considered a potential modifier to the mortality class gradient through differences in social mobility. Direct health selection in particular may operate in the short-term as poor health may lead to reduced work hours or achievement, downward social mobility, unemployment or restricted upward mobility, and death. In this study, the relationship between social mobility and mortality (all-cause, cancer-related, cardiovascular disease-related (CVD), and suicide) is explored when the relationship is adjusted for poor health. METHODS: Using Swedish register data (1996-2012) and discrete time event-history analysis, odds ratios and average marginal effects (AME) of social mobility and unemployment on mortality are observed before and after accounting for sickness absence in the previous year. RESULTS: After adjusting for sickness absence, all-cause mortality remained lower for men after upward mobility in comparison to not being mobile (OR 0.82, AME -0.0003, CI - 0.0003 to - 0.0002). Similarly, upward mobility continued to be associated with lower cancer-related mortality for men (OR 0.85, AME -0.00008, CI - 0.00002 to - 0.0002), CVD-related mortality for men (OR 0.76, AME -0.0001, CI - 0.00006 to - 0.0002) and suicide for women (OR 0.67, AME -0.00002, CI - 0.000002 to - 0.00003). The relationship between unemployment and mortality also persisted across most causes of death for both men and women after controlling for previous sickness absence. In contrast, adjusting for sickness absence renders the relationship between downward mobility and cancer-related mortality not statistically different from the non-mobile. CONCLUSIONS: Health selection plays a role in how downward mobility is linked to cancer related deaths. It additionally accounts for a portion of why upward mobility is associated with lower mortality. That health selection plays a role in how social mobility and mortality are related may be unexpected in a context with strong job protection. Job protection does not, however, equalize opportunities for upward mobility, which may be limited for those who have been ill. Because intra-generational upward mobility and mortality remained related after adjusting for sickness absence, other important mechanisms such as indirect selection or social causation should be explored.

Intergenerational educational mobility and smoking: a study of 20 European countries using diagonal reference models.

OBJECTIVES: Intergenerational educational mobility can be particularly relevant for smoking because it implies moving from individuals' family background to a new position in the social hierarchy. Existing research, however, does not provide an answer as to how the process of mobility, per se, is associated with the likelihood of smoking. STUDY DESIGN: We used cross-nationally comparable survey data for 20 countries collected within the health module of the European Social Survey in 2014. The analytical sample consisted of 22,336 respondents aged 25-64 years. METHODS: Smoking was operationalized by daily and occasional smoking, while the intergenerational educational mobility variable was derived from a comparison of respondents' and their parents' highest levels of educational attainment. We employed diagonal reference models to examine the association of intergenerational educational mobility and smoking. RESULTS: In the country- and age-adjusted analysis, intergenerational downward mobility was associated with odds ratios of 1.34 (CI95 1.07, 1.68) and 1.61 (CI95 1.34, 1.93) for smoking, respectively, among men and women. Intergenerational upward mobility, on the other hand, was negatively associated with smoking but only among women. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide new evidence that the process of intergenerational educational mobility is associated with individuals' likelihood of smoking and that this effect cannot be explained by conventional covariates of smoking.

Gender, class, employment status and social mobility following spinal cord injury in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross sectional survey of 1055 persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. OBJECTIVES: (1) To analyse the employment levels of people of working age with SCI, including possible gender differences. (2) To study the relevance of occupational class before SCI and its impact on employment and occupational class after SCI. SETTING: Members of national SCI consumer associations. METHODS: Employment status and social mobility after SCI was regressed on occupational class before SCI, using multinomial and binary logistic regression analysis of employment, while controlling for other explanatory variables to employment after SCI and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Employment levels after injury were similar for men and women in each of the four nations, but Dutch women had significantly lower scores on predicted employment than Dutch men. Employment and social mobility trajectories were heavily in favour of middle-class occupations. Gender differences in employment status at the time of study primarily occurred among those in working-class occupations before SCI, with men less likely than women of being non-employed. Working-class men were significantly more likely than working-class women to retain a working-class occupation at the time of study, and although non-significant, to attain a middle-class occupation after SCI. CONCLUSION: There was little variation in employment by gender within and across countries but significant differences between working-class and middle-class occupations before and after injury. The results suggest that targeted employment measures should be particularly invested in the rehabilitation of women in working-class occupations.

Association Between Socioeconomic Status Mobility and Inflammation Markers Among White and Black Adults in the United States: A Latent Class Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines whether multidimensional indicators of objective and subjective socioeconomic status (SES) across the life course can be categorized into latent classes of SES mobility and tests the associations of these categories with inflammation markers among white and black adults. METHODS: Data are from 592 non-Hispanic white and 158 non-Hispanic black participants who completed both the baseline survey and biomarkers assessment of the Midlife in the United States Refresher study. Groups of different SES mobility were examined using latent class analysis. RESULTS: White and black participants showed different patterns of SES mobility. Among blacks, the latent classes were as follows: 1) objectively always high (24.71%; high objective SES across the life course), 2) subjectively always high (6.48%; high subjective and low objective SES across the life course), 3) downwardly mobile (35.84%; high childhood SES, low adult SES), and 4) always low (32.97%; low childhood SES, education, and adult SES). Among whites, the latent classes were as follows: 1) always high (52.17%; high childhood SES, high education, high adult SES), 2) upwardly mobile (18.14%; low childhood SES, high education, high adult SES), 3) subjectively downward (27.74%; high childhood SES, high education, high objective adult SES, low subjective adult SES), and 4) always low (1.95%; low childhood SES, education, and adult SES). SES mobility was associated with inflammation in white (Wald χ values (3) = 12.89-17.44, p values < .050), but not in black adults (Wald χ values (3) = 2.79-7.22, p values > .050). CONCLUSION: The lack of SES mobility differentiation on inflammation is an indication of diminished return for the most affluent class among black participants.

Association Between Parental Income During Childhood and Risk of Schizophrenia Later in Life.

Importance: Evidence linking parental socioeconomic position and offspring's schizophrenia risk has been inconsistent, and how risk is associated with parental socioeconomic mobility has not been investigated. Objective: To elucidate the association between parental income level and income mobility during childhood and subsequent schizophrenia risk. Design, Setting, and Participants: National cohort study of all persons born in Denmark from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 2000, who were followed up from their 15th birthday until schizophrenia diagnosis, emigration, death, or December 31, 2016, whichever came first. Data analyses were from March 2018 to June 2019. Exposure: Parental income, measured at birth year and at child ages 5, 10, and 15 years. Main Outcomes and Measures: Hazard ratios (HRs) for schizophrenia were estimated using Cox proportional hazard regression. Cumulative incidence values (absolute risks) were also calculated. Results: The cohort included 1 051 033 participants, of whom 51.3% were male. Of the cohort members, 7544 (4124 [54.7%] male) were diagnosed with schizophrenia during 11.6 million person-years of follow-up. There was an inverse association between parental income level and subsequent schizophrenia risk, with children from lower income families having especially elevated risk. Estimates were attenuated, but risk gradients remained after adjustment for urbanization, parental mental disorders, parental educational levels, and number of changes in child-parent separation status. A dose-response association was observed with increasing amount of time spent in low-income conditions being linked with higher schizophrenia risk. Regardless of parental income level at birth, upward income mobility was associated with lower schizophrenia risk compared with downward mobility. For example, children who were born and remained in the lowest income quintile at age 15 years had a 4.12 (95% CI, 3.71-4.58) elevated risk compared with the reference group, those who were born in and remained in the most affluent quintile, but even a rise from the lowest income quintile at birth to second lowest at age 15 years appeared to lessen the risk elevation (HR, 2.80; 95% CI, 2.46-3.17). On the contrary, for those born in the most affluent quintile, downward income mobility between birth and age 15 years was associated with increased risks of developing schizophrenia. Conclusions and Relevance: This study's findings suggest that parental income level and income mobility during childhood may be linked with schizophrenia risk. Although both causation and selection mechanisms could be involved, enabling upward income mobility could influence schizophrenia incidence at the population level.

Long-term decline in intergenerational mobility in the United States since the 1850s.

We make use of newly available data that include roughly 5 million linked household and population records from 1850 to 2015 to document long-term trends in intergenerational social mobility in the United States. Intergenerational mobility declined substantially over the past 150 y, but more slowly than previously thought. Intergenerational occupational rank-rank correlations increased from less than 0.17 to as high as 0.32, but most of this change occurred to Americans born before 1900. After controlling for the relatively high mobility of persons from farm origins, we find that intergenerational social mobility has been remarkably stable. In contrast with relative stability in rank-based measures of mobility, absolute mobility for the nonfarm population-the fraction of offspring whose occupational ranks are higher than those of their parents-increased for birth cohorts born prior to 1900 and has fallen for those born after 1940.