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.

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.

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.

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.

Social origin, field of study and graduates' career progression: does social inequality vary across fields?

Research on stratification and mobility has consistently shown that in the UK there is a direct impact of social origin on occupational destination net of educational attainment even for degree-holders. However, only a few studies applied a longitudinal and dynamic perspective on how intergenerational mobility shapes graduates' working careers. Using multilevel growth curve modelling and data from the 1970 British cohort study (BCS70), we contribute to this research by looking at the emergence of social inequalities during the first ten years since labour market entry. We further distinguish between graduates of different fields of study as we expect social disparities to develop differently due to differences in initial occupational placement and upward mobility processes. We find that parental class does not affect occupational prestige over and above prior achievement. Separate analyses by the field of study show that initial differences in occupational prestige and career progression do not differ between graduates from different classes of origin in STEM fields, and arts and humanities. It is only in the social sciences that working-class graduates start with lower occupational prestige but soon catch up with their peers from higher classes. Overall, our results indicate no direct effect of social origin on occupational attainment for degree-holders once we broaden our focus to a dynamic life course perspective.

Americans overestimate the intergenerational persistence in income ranks

Recent research suggests that intergenerational income mobility has remained low and stable in America, but popular discourse routinely assumes that Americans are optimistic about mobility prospects in society. Examining these 2 seemingly contradictory observations requires a careful measurement of the public's perceptions of mobility. Unlike most previous work that measures perceptions about mobility outcomes for the overall population or certain subgroups, we propose a survey instrument that emphasizes the variation in perceived mobility prospects for hypothetical children across parent income ranks. Based on this survey instrument, we derive the perceived relationship between the income ranks of parents and children, which can then be compared against the actual rank-rank relationship reported by empirical work based on tax data. We fielded this instrument in a general population survey experiment (n = 3,077). Our results suggest that Americans overestimate the intergenerational persistence in income ranks. They overestimate economic prospects for children from rich families and underestimate economic prospects for those from poor families.

Intergenerational Occupational Mobility and Objective Physical Functioning in Midlife and Older Ages

Objective

This study investigates the relationship between intergenerational occupational mobility and objective physical functioning in later life.

Method

Data come from The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA), a nationally representative probability sample of 5,985 respondents aged 50 and older. Walking speed and grip strength are the functional health measures. The intergenerational occupational mobility measure characterizes origin and destination position as: professional/managerial, non-manual, skilled manual/semi-skilled, unskilled, never worked, and farmer.

Results

Results indicated no direct association of childhood origin with walking speed or grip strength in later life, except for individuals from farming backgrounds. Those who experienced upward mobility were comparable in speed and strength with those who enjoyed high status (e.g., stable professional/managerial origin and destination) at both time points, whereas the downwardly mobile were comparable with those who were stable across generations at lower occupational positions. The results did not support the central tenets of the accumulation hypothesis. Respondents from farming backgrounds exhibited a clear performance advantage irrespective of destination, which, we speculate, may represent a critical period effect.

Discussion

The mechanisms through which childhood origin affects health in later life are complex, but the position attained in adult life is most important. Intergenerational mobility is important only insofar as it leads to a destination occupation. The present findings suggest that the musculoskeletal system may accommodate environmental modification in adulthood.

Intergenerational Educational Pathways and Self-Rated Health in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Results of the German KiGGS Cohort

Health differences in social mobility are often analysed by income differences or different occupational positions. However, in early adulthood many young people still have very diffuse income situations and are not always fully integrated into the labour market despite many having finished school. This article focusses on the link between intergenerational educational pathways and self-rated health (SRH) among young adults considering their SRH in adolescence. The data source used is the German KiGGS cohort study. The analysis sample comprises 2175 young people at baseline (t0: 2003⁻2006 age 14⁻17) and first follow-up (t1: 2009⁻2012 age 19⁻24). Combining parent's and young people's highest school degree, the data can trace patterns of intergenerational educational pathways (constant high level of education, upward mobility, downward mobility, constant low level of education). Young people's SRH was recorded at t0 and t1. During adolescence and young adulthood, participants were less likely to report poor SRH if they had a constant high intergenerational education or if they were upwardly mobile. The differences were particularly striking among young adults: average marginal effects (AME) for poor SRH showed much higher risk among downwardly mobile compared to peers with an intergenerational constant high education (AME: 0.175 [0.099; 0.251]), while the upwardly mobile had a significantly lower risk for less than good SRH than peers with an intergenerational constant low level of education (AME: -0.058 [-0.113; -0.004]). In the context of great societal demands and personal developmental needs, educational differences in health tend to increase in young adulthood. Public Health should pay more attention to educational and health inequalities in young adulthood.

Socio-spatial mobilities and narratives of class identity in Britain

In this article we carry out the most comprehensive analysis of social and spatial mobility in the UK to date and the first to directly link different dimensions of mobility to processes of social class formation. Using new analytical techniques in this field, we integrate quantitative and qualitative data from the 1958 Birth Cohort Study, combining text-mining and correspondence analysis in order to examine the intersection of geographical and social mobility with class identities. This work reflects a revival of interest in the spatialization of class inequalities, which is connected to policy concerns about the regional dimension of Britain's mobility 'crisis' that have intensified in the wake of the 'Brexit' vote. We find that the South's role as an 'escalator' region for upward mobility has continued and that the relationship between social and spatial mobility both confirms and qualifies the role of London and the South East in generating inequalities. We show that different migration-mobility transitions are associated with distinctive and contrasting class identity narratives. Those who move from North to South stand out in particular for the way their 'class talk' reveals the social disorientation that attends their success. The contrasting ways in which other groups express their social identities suggests that the interplay of geographical and social mobilities performs a significant role in regional cultural divisions.

Places of Persistence: Slavery and the Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States

Intergenerational mobility has remained stable over recent decades in the United States but varies sharply across the country. In this article, I document that areas with more prevalent slavery by the outbreak of the Civil War exhibit substantially less upward mobility today. I find a negative link between prior slavery and contemporary mobility within states, when controlling for a wide range of historical and contemporary factors including income and inequality, focusing on the historical slave states, using a variety of mobility measures, and when exploiting geographical differences in the suitability for cultivating cotton as an instrument for the prevalence of slavery. As a first step to disentangle the underlying channels of persistence, I examine whether any of the five broad factors highlighted by Chetty et al. (2014a) as the most important correlates of upward mobility-family structure, income inequality, school quality, segregation, and social capital-can account for the link between earlier slavery and current mobility. More fragile family structures in areas where slavery was more prevalent, as reflected in lower marriage rates and a larger share of children living in single-parent households, is seemingly the most relevant to understand why it still shapes the geography of opportunity in the United States.

Economic opportunity, health behaviours, and health outcomes in the USA: a population-based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Inequality of opportunity, defined as differences in the prospects for upward social mobility, might have important consequences for health. Diminished opportunity can lower the motivation to invest in future health by reducing economic returns to health investments and undermining hope. We estimated the association between county-level economic opportunity and individual-level health in young adults in the general US population.

METHODS

In this population-based cross-sectional study, we used individual-level data from the 2009-12 United States Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys. Our primary outcomes were current self-reported overall health and the number of days of poor physical and mental health in the last month. Economic opportunity was measured by the county-averaged national income rank attained by individuals born to families in the lowest income quartile. We restricted our sample to adults aged 25-35 years old to match the data used to assign exposure. Multivariable ordinary least squares and probit models were used to estimate the association between the outcomes and economic opportunity. We adjusted for a range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, including age, sex, race, education, income, access to health care, area income inequality, segregation, and social capital.

FINDINGS

We assessed nearly 147 000 individuals between the ages of 25 years and 35 years surveyed from 2009 to 2012. In models adjusting for individual-level demographics and county-level socioeconomic characteristics, increases in county-level economic opportunity were associated with greater self-reported overall health. An interdecile increase in economic opportunity was associated with 0·76 fewer days of poor mental health (95% CI -1·26 to -0·25) and 0·53 fewer days of poor physical health (-0·96 to -0·09) in the last month. The results were robust to sensitivity analyses.

INTERPRETATION

Economic opportunity is independently associated with self-reported health and health behaviours. Policies seeking to expand economic opportunities might have important spillover effects on health.

FUNDING

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program.

Occupational prestige, social mobility and the association with lung cancer in men

BACKGROUND

The nature of the association between occupational social prestige, social mobility, and risk of lung cancer remains uncertain. Using data from the international pooled SYNERGY case-control study, we studied the association between lung cancer and the level of time-weighted average occupational social prestige as well as its lifetime trajectory.

METHODS

We included 11,433 male cases and 14,147 male control subjects. Each job was translated into an occupational social prestige score by applying Treiman's Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale (SIOPS). SIOPS scores were categorized as low, medium, and high prestige (reference). We calculated odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for study center, age, smoking, ever employment in a job with known lung carcinogen exposure, and education. Trajectories in SIOPS categories from first to last and first to longest job were defined as consistent, downward, or upward. We conducted several subgroup and sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of our results.

RESULTS

We observed increased lung cancer risk estimates for men with medium (OR = 1.23; 95 % CI 1.13-1.33) and low occupational prestige (OR = 1.44; 95 % CI 1.32-1.57). Although adjustment for smoking and education reduced the associations between occupational prestige and lung cancer, they did not explain the association entirely. Traditional occupational exposures reduced the associations only slightly. We observed small associations with downward prestige trajectories, with ORs of 1.13, 95 % CI 0.88-1.46 for high to low, and 1.24; 95 % CI 1.08-1.41 for medium to low trajectories.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that occupational prestige is independently associated with lung cancer among men.

Applying the Rasch Model to Measure Mobility of Women: A Comparative Analysis of Mobility of Informal Workers in Fisheries in Kerala, India

Mobility or freedom and ability to move is gendered in many cultural contexts. In this paper I analyse mobility associated with work from the capability approach perspective of Sen. This is an empirical paper which uses the Rasch Rating Scale Model (RSM) to construct the measure of mobility of women for the first time in the development studies discourse. I construct a measure of mobility (latent trait) of women workers engaged in two types of informal work, namely, peeling work and fish vending, in fisheries in the cultural context of India. The scale measure enables first, to test the unidimensionality of my construct of mobility of women and second, to analyse the domains of mobility of women workers. The comparative analysis of the scale of permissibility of mobility constructed using the RSM for the informal women workers shows that women face constraints on mobility in social and personal spaces in the socially advanced state of Kerala in India. Work mobility does not expand the real freedoms, hence work mobility can be termed as bounded capability which is a capability limited or bounded by either the social, cultural and gender norms or a combination of all of these. Therefore at the macro level, growth in informal employment in sectors like fisheries which improve mobility of women through work mobility does not necessarily expand the capability sets by contributing to greater freedoms and transformational mobility. This paper has a significant methodological contribution in that it uses an innovative method for the measurement of mobility of women in the development studies discipline.

Social Mobility and Mental Disorders at 30 Years of Age in Participants of the 1982 Cohort, Pelotas, Rio Grande Do Sul - RS

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between mental disorders at 30 years of age and social mobility by formally testing three hypotheses: Risk Accumulation; Critical Period; and Social Mobility. The study was performed using data from the 30-year follow-up of the Pelotas Birth Cohort Study, conducted in 1982, and data from previous follow-ups. The tool used to evaluate mental health was the Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20). For the statistical analysis, the chi-square test with the Yates correction was used to estimate the prevalence of mental disorder, and the Poisson regression with robust variance was used to formally test the hypotheses according to the Risk Accumulation, Critical Period and Social Mobility Models. The analyses were stratified by gender. The prevalence of Common Mental Disorders (CMDs) was 24.3% (95% CI 22.9–25.7) when the whole sample was considered. The highest prevalence, 27.1% (95% CI 25.1–29.2), was found in women, and the difference between genders was significant (p < 0.001). CMDs were more frequent in participants who remained “poor” in the three follow-ups. In both men and women, the best fit was obtained with the Risk Accumulation Model, with p = 0.6348 and p = 0.2105, respectively. The results indicate the need to rethink public income maintenance policies. Finally, we suggest further studies to investigate the role of different public policies in decreasing the prevalence of mental disorders and thus contribute proposals of new policies that may contribute to the prevention of these disorders.

The mobility problem in Britain: new findings from the analysis of birth cohort data

Social mobility is now a matter of greater political concern in Britain than at any time previously. However, the data available for the determination of mobility trends are less adequate today than two or three decades ago. It is widely believed in political and in media circles that social mobility is in decline. But the evidence so far available from sociological research, focused on intergenerational class mobility, is not supportive of this view. We present results based on a newly-constructed dataset covering four birth cohorts that provides improved data for the study of trends in class mobility and that also allows analyses to move from the twentieth into the twenty-first century. These results confirm that there has been no decline in mobility, whether considered in absolute or relative terms. In the case of women, there is in fact evidence of mobility increasing. However, the better quality and extended range of our data enable us to identify other 'mobility problems' than the supposed decline. Among the members of successive cohorts, the experience of absolute upward mobility is becoming less common and that of absolute downward mobility more common; and class-linked inequalities in relative chances of mobility and immobility appear wider than previously thought.

Family income trajectory during childhood is associated with adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol use

BACKGROUND

Although childhood socioeconomic disadvantage has been linked with adolescent tobacco and alcohol use in cross-sectional research, less is known about the influence of changes in socioeconomic status during childhood. Upward socioeconomic mobility may attenuate the negative influence of earlier socioeconomic disadvantage on health, while downward mobility may counter the health benefits of earlier socioeconomic advantage. This study evaluated the influence of common trajectories of family income during childhood on smoking and alcohol use during adolescence.

METHODS

Data utilized were part of the 15-year longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. A 5-class trajectory model (two stable, one downward, and two upward income trajectories) was developed previously with this sample (N=1356). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine whether children of the more disadvantaged income trajectories were more likely to engage in tobacco and alcohol use at age 15 relative to those of the most advantaged trajectory.

RESULTS

Family income trajectory was significantly associated with ever-smoking (p=.02) and past-year alcohol use at age 15years (p=.008). Children from the less advantaged trajectories were more likely to have ever-smoked than children of the most advantaged trajectory (all p's<.05). Children of the downwardly mobile trajectory were more likely to have used alcohol within the past year than children of the most advantaged trajectories as well as the most disadvantaged trajectory (all p's<.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate that childhood socioeconomic disadvantage influences adolescent smoking, while downward socioeconomic mobility influences adolescent alcohol use.

Tracking who climbs up--and who falls down--the ladder

Researchers seek new ways to understand social mobility and opportunity in America

The class-origin wage gap: heterogeneity in education and variations across market segments

This paper uses unique population-level matched employer-employee data on monthly wages to analyse class-origin wage gaps in the Swedish labour market. Education is the primary mediator of class origin advantages in the labour market, but mobility research often only considers the vertical dimension of education. When one uses an unusually detailed measure of education in a horizontal dimension, the wage gap between individuals of advantaged and disadvantaged class origin is found to be substantial (4-5 per cent), yet considerably smaller than when measures are used which only control for level of education and field of study. This is also the case for models with class or occupation as outcome. The class-origin wage gap varies considerably across labour market segments, such as those defined by educational levels, fields of education, industries and occupations in both seemingly unsystematic and conspicuous ways. The gap is small in the public sector, suggesting that bureaucracy may act as a leveller.

Is intergenerational social mobility related to the type and amount of physical activity in mid-adulthood? Results from the 1946 British birth cohort study

PURPOSE

Greater levels of leisure-time or moderate-vigorous physical activity have consistently been found in those with greater socioeconomic position (SEP). Less is known about the effects of intergenerational social mobility.

METHODS

We examined the influence of SEP and social mobility on mid-adulthood physical activity in the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development. Two sub-domains of SEP were used: occupational class and educational attainment. Latent classes for walking, cycling, and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) were used, plus sedentary behavior at age 36. Associations between types of physical activity and SEP were examined with the use of logistic or multinomial logistic regression.

RESULTS

Being a manual worker oneself or having a father who was a manual worker was, relative to nonmanual work, associated with lower levels of sedentary behavior and greater walking activity, but also with lower LTPA. Compared with those who remained in a manual occupational class, upward occupational mobility was associated with more sedentary behavior, less walking, and increased LTPA. Associations with downward mobility were in the opposite directions. Similar results were obtained for educational attainment.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found clear evidence of social differences in physical activity. Persistently high SEP and upward social mobility were associated with greater levels of LTPA but also increased sedentary behavior and less walking.

Green qualities in the neighbourhood and mental health - results from a longitudinal cohort study in Southern Sweden

BACKGROUND

Poor mental health is a major issue worldwide and causality is complex. For diseases with multifactorial background synergistic effects of person- and place- factors can potentially be preventive. Nature is suggested as one such positive place-factor. In this cohort study we tested the effect of defined green qualities (Serene, Space, Wild, Culture, Lush) in the environment at baseline on mental health at follow-up. We also studied interaction effects on mental health of those place factors and varied person factors (financial stress, living conditions, and physical activity).

METHODS

Data on person factors were extracted from a longitudinal (years 1999/2000 and 2005) population health survey (n = 24945). The participants were geocoded and linked to data on green qualities from landscape assessments, and stored in the Geographical Information System (GIS). Crude odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated, and multivariate logistic analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Mental health was not affected by access to the chosen green qualities, neither in terms of amount nor in terms of any specific quality. However, we found a reduced risk for poor mental health at follow-up among women, through a significant interaction effect between physical activity and access to the qualities Serene or Space. For men the tendencies were similar, though not significant. Regarding the other three green qualities, as well as amount of qualities, no statistically certain synergistic effects were found. Likewise, no significant synergies were detected between green qualities and the other person-factors. Only advanced exercise significantly reduced the risk for poor mental health among women, but not for men, compared to physical inactivity.

CONCLUSIONS

The results do not directly support the hypothesis of a preventive mental health effect by access to the green qualities. However, the additive effect of serene nature to physical activity contributed to better mental health at follow-up. This tendency was equal for both sexes, but statistically significant only for women.Objective landscape assessments may be important in detangling geographic determinants of health. This study stresses the importance of considering interaction effects when dealing with disorders of multifactorial background.

Migration, social mobility and common mental disorders: critical review of the literature and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

Changes in socio-economic position in people who migrate may have adverse associations with mental health. The main objective of this review was to assess the association of social mobility with common mental disorders in migrant and second-generation groups, to inform future research.

DESIGN

Systematic review and meta-analysis of English-language studies assessing the association of social mobility in migrant or second-generation groups with common mental disorders. Approaches to operationalise 'social mobility' were reviewed.

RESULTS

Twelve studies (n=18,548) met criteria for retrieval. Very few included second-generation groups, and most studies were cross-sectional in design. Approaches to operationalise 'social mobility' varied between studies. Downward intragenerational social mobility was associated with migration in the majority of studies. Random effects meta-analysis (n=5179) suggested that migrants to higher income countries who experienced downward mobility or underemployment were more likely to screen positive for common mental disorders, relative to migrants who were upwardly mobile or experienced no changes to socio-economic position. Conclusions on second-generation groups were limited by the lack of research highlighted for these groups. Downward intragenerational mobility associated with migration may be associated with vulnerability to common mental disorders in some migrant groups.

CONCLUSION

Given the increasing scale of global migration, further research is needed to clarify how changes to socio-economic position associated with international migration may impact on the mental health of migrants, and in their children.

Socioeconomic correlates of rates of child maltreatment in small communities

This study expands the research on neighborhood effects and child maltreatment by examining the structural conditions, including religion and nationality, in small towns in Israel. The results are compared with those in inner-city and suburban neighborhoods in Western countries. Five community structural variables were statistically correlated with investigated cases of child maltreatment: adults' unemployment rate, rate of new immigrants, rate of children in single-parent families, population gain or loss, and the community's location in relation to a central city. A multivariate regression analysis of these variables explained 44% of the variance.

Monitoring inequities in self-rated health over the life course in population surveillance systems

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the effect of social mobility and to assess the use of socioeconomic indicators in monitoring health inequities over time, we examined the association of self-rated health with socioeconomic position over the life course.

METHODS

Data came from a cross-sectional telephone survey (n = 2999) that included life-course socioeconomic indicators and from a chronic disease and risk factor surveillance system (n = 26 400). Social mobility variables, each with 4 possible intergenerational trajectories, were constructed from family financial situation and housing tenure during childhood and adulthood.

RESULTS

Low socioeconomic position during both childhood and adulthood and improved financial situation in adulthood were associated with a reduced prevalence of excellent or very good health. Trends over time indicated that socioeconomic disadvantage in adulthood was associated with poorer self-rated health.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results support policies aiming to improve family financial situation during childhood and housing tenure across the life course. Inclusion of life-course socioeconomic measures in surveillance systems would enable monitoring of health inequities trends among socially mobile groups.

Microclass mobility: social reproduction in four countries

In the sociological literature on social mobility, the long-standing convention has been to assume that intergenerational reproduction takes one of two forms: a categorical form that has parents passing on a big-class position to their children or a gradational form that has parents passing on their socioeconomic standing. These approaches ignore in their own ways the important role that occupations play in transferring opportunities from one generation to the next. In new analyses of nationally representative data from the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Japan, the authors show that (a) occupations are an important conduit for social reproduction, (b) the most extreme rigidities in the mobility regime are only revealed when analyses are carried out at the occupational level, and (c) much of what shows up as big-class reproduction in conventional mobility analyses is in fact occupational reproduction in disguise.

Breast feeding in infancy and social mobility: 60-year follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort

OBJECTIVE

To assess the association of having been breast fed with social class mobility between childhood and adulthood.

DESIGN

Historical cohort study with a 60-year follow-up from childhood into adulthood.

SETTING

16 urban and rural centres in England and Scotland.

PARTICIPANTS

3182 original participants in the Boyd Orr Survey of Diet and Health in Pre-War Britain (1937-39) were sent follow-up questionnaires between 1997 and 1998. Analyses are based on 1414 (44%) responders with data on breast feeding measured in childhood and occupational social class in both childhood and adulthood.

MAIN OUTCOME

Odds of moving from a lower to a higher social class between childhood and adulthood in those who were ever breast fed versus those who were bottle fed.

RESULTS

The prevalence of breast feeding varied by survey district (range 45-86%) but not with household income (p = 0.7), expenditure on food (p = 0.3), number of siblings (p = 0.7), birth order (p = 0.5) or social class (p = 0.4) in childhood. Participants who had been breast fed were 41% (95% CI 10% to 82%) more likely to move up a social class in adulthood (p = 0.007) than bottle-fed infants. Longer breastfeeding duration was associated with greater odds of upward social mobility in fully adjusted models (p for trend = 0.003). Additionally controlling for survey district, household income and food expenditure in childhood, childhood height, birth order or number of siblings did not attenuate these associations. In an analysis comparing social mobility among children within families with discordant breastfeeding histories, the association was somewhat attenuated (OR 1.16; 95% CI 0.74 to 1.8).

CONCLUSIONS

Breast feeding was associated with upward social mobility. Confounding by other measured childhood predictors of social class in adulthood did not explain this effect, but we cannot exclude the possibility of residual or unmeasured confounding.

Making it in America: social mobility in the immigrant population

In his survey of research on social mobility and U.S. immigration, George Borjas underscores two insights. First, most immigrants are at a sizable earnings disadvantage, relative to native-born workers. Second, the earnings of different groups of immigrants vary widely. The children of immigrants "catch up" to native-born workers slowly. The jump in relative wages between the first and second generations is somewhere between 5 and 10 percentage points. Of particular concern is that the age-adjusted relative wage of both immigrants and second-generation workers has been falling--a trend with bleak implications for the children of immigrants. The wide ethnic variation in the earnings of immigrants has equally important implications. National origin groups from advanced economies, such as Canada, do much better in the U.S. labor market than those from poorer countries, such as Mexico. And the initial ethnic differences tend to persist. In rough terms, about half of the difference in relative economic status persists from one generation to the next. Thus a 20 percentage point wage gap among ethnic groups in the immigrant generation implies a 10 point gap among second-generation groups and a 5 point gap among third-generation groups. Again in rough terms, Borjas attributes about half of that persistence to the ethnic environment in which children are raised. Borjas cautions that the rate of social mobility that immigrants enjoyed over much of the twentieth century may not continue in the future. The employment sectors seeking immigrants today are unlikely to provide the same growth opportunities as did the rapidly expanding manufacturing sector a century ago. And in contrast to the many and diverse ethnic groups that made up early twentieth-century immigrants, the large ethnic groups of immigrants today may develop separate economies and social structures, in effect hindering their social mobility.

Intergenerational social mobility: the United States in comparative perspective

Emily Beller and Michael Hout examine trends in U.S. social mobility, especially as it relates to the degree to which a person's income or occupation depends on his or her parents' background and to the independent contribution of economic growth. They also compare U.S. social mobility with that in other countries. They conclude that slower economic growth since 1975 and the concentration of that growth among the wealthy have slowed the pace of U.S. social mobility. In measuring mobility, economists tend to look at income and sociologists, occupation. The consensus among those measuring occupational mobility is that the average correlation between the occupations of fathers and sons today ranges from 0.30 to 0.40, meaning that most variation in the ranking of occupations is independent of social origins. Those measuring income mobility tend to agree that the elasticity between fathers' and sons' earnings in the United States today is about 0.4, meaning that 40 percent of the difference in incomes between families in the parents' generation also shows up in differences in incomes in the sons' generation. Beller and Hout show that occupational mobility increased during the 1970s, compared with the 1940s-1960s, but there is some evidence to suggest that by the 1980s and 1990s it had declined to past levels. Existing data on income mobility show no clear trends over time, but increases in economic inequality during the 1980s made mobility more consequential by making economic differences between families persist for a longer time. In international comparisons, the United States occupies a middle ground in occupational mobility but ranks lower in income mobility. Researchers have used the variation in mobility to study whether aspects of a country's policy regime, such as the educational or social welfare systems, might be driving these results. There is as yet, however, no scholarly consensus about the sources of cross-national differences in mobility.

Intergenerational mobility for women and minorities in the United States

Now that some of the historic barriers to economic success for U.S. women and minorities have begun to fall, women and blacks, in particular, are moving upward on the nation's socioeconomic ladder. Melissa Kearney reviews evidence that improved economic opportunities for these two groups make sex and race less important than they once were in determining economic status. But sex- and race-based differences in wages and income persist, and interactions between sex and class and between race and class continue to play a role in the intergenerational transmission of income status. Kearney surveys studies and data showing that marriage remains important in determining women's economic status, even though marriage rates among women aged eighteen to thirty-four have been falling--from 73 percent in 1960 to 44 percent in 2000. Not only do spousal earnings continue to dominate family income for married women, but also women tend to marry men whose position in the income distribution resembles their fathers' position. Marriage thus facilitates the transmission of economic status from parents to daughters. Racial wage gaps persist, says Kearney, largely because of differences in education, occupation, and skill. It also appears likely that the effects of discrimination, both current and past, continue to impede racial economic convergence. Kearney notes that the transmission of income class from parents to children among blacks differs noticeably from that among whites. Black parents and white parents pass their economic standing along to children at similar rates. But because mean income is lower among blacks than among whites, the likelihood of upward mobility in the overall income distribution is substantially lower among blacks. Black children are much more likely than white children to remain in the lower percentiles of the income distribution, and white children are more likely to remain in the upper reaches of the income distribution. Downward mobility from the top quartile to the bottom quartile is nearly four times as great for blacks as for whites.

Early Childhood Development and Social Mobility

Steven Barnett and Clive Belfield examine the effects of preschool education on social mobility in the United States. They note that under current policy three- and four-year-old children from economically and educationally disadvantaged families have higher preschool attendance rates than other children. But current programs fail to enroll even half of poor three- and four-year-olds. Hispanics and children of mothers who drop out of school also participate at relatively low rates. The programs also do little to improve learning and development. The most effective programs, they explain, are intensive interventions such as the model Abecedarian and Perry Preschool programs, which feature highly qualified teachers and small group sizes. State preschool programs with the highest standards rank next, followed by Head Start and the average state program, which produce effects ranging from one-tenth to one-quarter of those of the best programs. Typical child care and family support programs rank last. Barnett and Belfield point out that preschool programs raise academic skills on average, but do not appear to have notably different effects for different groups of children, and so do not strongly enhance social mobility. In such areas as crime, welfare, and teen parenting, however, preschool seems more able to break links between parental behaviors and child outcomes. Increased investment in preschool, conclude Barnett and Belfield, could raise social mobility. Program expansions targeted to disadvantaged children would help them move up the ladder, as would a more universal set of policies from which disadvantaged children gained disproportionately. Increasing the educational effectiveness of early childhood programs would provide for greater gains in social mobility than increasing participation rates alone. The authors observe that if future expansions of preschool programs end up serving all children, not just the poorest, society as a whole would gain. Benefits would exceed costs and there would be more economic growth, but relative gains for disadvantaged children would be smaller than absolute gains because there would be some (smaller) benefits to other children.

Social dynamics of health inequalities: a growth curve analysis of aging and self assessed health in the British household panel survey 1991-2001

OBJECTIVES

To study how social inequalities change as people age, this paper presents a growth curve model of self assessed health, which accommodates changes in occupational class and individual health with age.

DESIGN

Nationally representative interview based longitudinal survey of adults in Great Britain.

SETTING

Representative members of private households of Great Britain in 1991.

PARTICIPANTS

Survey respondents (n = 6705), aged 21-59 years in 1991 and followed up annually until 2001.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Self assessed health.

RESULTS

On average, self assessed health declines slowly from early adulthood to retirement age. No significant class differences in health were observed at age 21. Health inequalities emerged later in life with the gap between mean levels of self assessed health of those in managerial and professional occupations and routine occupations widening approaching retirement. Individual variability in health trajectories increased between ages 40 and 59 years so that this widening of mean differences between occupational classes was not significant. When the analysis is confined to people whose occupational class remained constant over time, a far greater difference in health trajectories between occupational classes was seen.

CONCLUSIONS

The understanding of social inequalities in health at the population level is enriched by an analysis of individual variation in age related declines by social position.

Intragenerational mobility and mortality in Oslo: social selection versus social causation

We investigate the relative importance of the selection and causation hypotheses of social inequalities in mortality, and estimate upper and lower bounds for the gender-specific mobility effects. For all inhabitants of Oslo aged 50-69 years in 1990, we knew their social class in 1960 and 1980 and whether they died between 1990 and 1994. Analysing these data with diagonal reference models, we found those moving upwards in the social hierarchy to have lower mortality rates than their class of origin but higher mortality rates than their class of destination. A corresponding pattern was found for those moving downwards. Thus, social mobility may increase or constrict the social class mortality divide. We estimated the upper bound to the mobility effect to be an increase of 52% for males and 28% for females (situation of no causation) and the lower bound to be a decrease of 24% for males and 21% for females (situation of no selection). Because both selection and causation effects are expected to play a role and to work in opposite directions, the resulting effect of social mobility on the mortality divide may be rather small.

Socioeconomic trajectories across the life course and health outcomes in midlife: evidence for the accumulation hypothesis?

BACKGROUND

Recent research in social epidemiology has established the importance of considering the accumulation of advantage and disadvantage across the life course when examining adult health outcomes. This paper examines (1) accumulation across trichotomous categories of socioeconomic position (SEP), and (2) accumulation in analysis stratified by adult SEP.

METHODS

Data are from the Whitehall II study. Each participant was categorized as having high (0), intermediate (1), or low (2) SEP at three time points in the life course, leading to 27 socioeconomic trajectories. These trajectories were summarized to yield a scale ranging from 0 (high SEP at all three time points) to 6 (low SEP at all three time points). Logistic regression was used to examine odds of incident coronary heart disease (CHD), poor mental and physical functioning, and minor psychiatric disorder.

RESULTS

There was a graded linear relationship between accumulation of socioeconomic exposure and health. Men with a score of 6 had increased odds of CHD (2.53, 95% CI: 1.3, 5.1), poor physical functioning (2.19, 95% CI: 1.4, 4.1), and poor mental functioning (2.60, 95% CI: 1.4, 4.9) compared with men with a score of 0. In women there was an accumulation effect for CHD and physical functioning. No cumulative effect of SEP on minor psychiatric disorder was observed. The effects of accumulation were weaker in analyses stratified by adult SEP, with early deprivation followed by high adult SEP particularly detrimental for CHD.

CONCLUSIONS

The health effects of socioeconomic disadvantage accumulate over the life course. In addition to accumulation effects, analysis stratified by adult SEP also provided support for the critical period and the pathway model.

COGNITIVE ABILITY AND OCCUPATIONAL STATUS IN A BRITISH COHORT

The relation between individual trait differences, social mobility and social structure is central to social biology. Because genetic variance underlies phenotypic variance in some of these traits, for example IQ, several mechanisms determine the population variance. Polygenic inheritance is the basic mechanism. Social mobility and assortative partner choice distribute the trait variance within generations. This feedback circle is constrained by sociological conditions at several levels of analysis. Fundamental to this theory of social assortment is the relation between social–biological traits and social class on the one hand, and these traits and social mobility on the other hand. The focus here is on the relation between social class, social mobility and cognitive ability. The National Child Development Study is drawn upon, including the last follow-up (1999–2000). By approaching this relationship through various methods, both social–biological and sociological aspects of this research question can be assessed.

Social mobility and self-reported limiting long-term illness among West Indian and South Asian migrants living in England and Wales

This study examined the relationship between social mobility and self-reported limiting long-term illness (LLTI) in West Indian and South Asian migrants in England and Wales present at the 1971, 1981 and 1991 Censuses in the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. Most people remained in the same social position regardless of migrant status and those who remained most disadvantaged reported more LLTI than those who remained least disadvantaged. Amongst those who were mobile, upward mobility was more common than downward mobility for South Asians and West Indians but not for all other study members. The findings for the impact of downward mobility on LLTI were particularly striking. Migrants who were downwardly mobile reported more LLTI than all other study members. All other study members who were downwardly mobile reported more LLTI than people who remained in the least disadvantaged group they left but less than those who remained in the most disadvantaged group they joined. Downwardly mobile South Asians reported more LLTI than those of the least disadvantaged group but this was not significantly different from the most disadvantaged group they joined. Downwardly mobile West Indians reported also more LLTI than the least disadvantaged group they left but, in contrast, to the South Asians this appeared to be more than that of the disadvantaged group they joined. Empirical studies are needed to understand the context of social mobility and how this affects health-related behaviours and specific diseases among migrants. In a situation where migrants do not have established economic or social support, the loss of resources or self-esteem could have a disproportionate negative effect on their health.

Health-related mobility, health inequalities and gradient constraint. Discussion and results from a Norwegian study

BACKGROUND

Recent studies have argued that health-related mobility does not widen social class health differentials, but rather moderates them. This is termed gradient constraint. This paper examines gradient constraint from a theoretical and empirical angle.

METHODS

How health-related mobility influences social class health differentials is discussed using hypothetical models. In a Norwegian survey with data on intergenerational mobility (N = 1,853 males aged 30-69 years), mean health and height values for different subsections of the sample were analysed.

RESULTS

When initial social class health differences are large and mobility widespread, health-related mobility may lead to smaller differentials, but the result depends on how closely mobility varies with health. This empirical study found non-significant increases in height and health differentials from class of origin to class of destination. The interpretation has to consider effects of both social mobility and social causation. Health is measured in the post-mobility situation and the effects of social mobility and social causation are difficult to separate from each other for most of the health indicators analysed. However, this limitation does not apply to height which is not influenced by social causation during adulthood. In these data mobility did not reduce the height differential.

CONCLUSION

Health-related mobility can either lead to smaller or larger social class health differentials. The specific effects of social mobility cannot be determined without knowing how social causation has interfered. The intergenerational mobility process analysed in this paper does not show gradient constraint as regards the height differential between the worker and higher occupational categories.

Socioeconomic status, social mobility and cancer occurrence during working life: a case-control study among French electricity and gas workers

OBJECTIVES

A case-control study within a cohort of the workers employed by Electricité de France and Gaz de France between 1988 and 1992 was carried out to investigate relationships between cancers and socioeconomic status, including the effects of social mobility, by studying three professional career points.

METHODS

All the incident cases of breast cancer in women and all the incident cases of upper respiratory and digestive tract cancer (comprising cancers of the larynx, pharynx, buccal cavity and esophagus), lung cancer, hematopoietic system cancers and colon cancer in men were extracted from the Cancer Register of the Social Security Department. The controls were matched for age (men) and for age and length of employment in the company (women). Socioeconomic status was measured at three professional career points (beginning, midpoint (about 35), and time of diagnosis (about 48)) by two types of socio-professional variables: employee category (low, medium, high) and a variable based on the French socioeconomic status classification system. An estimation of social mobility was done between career beginning and midpoint. Cases and controls were compared for socioeconomic status at the three career points. They were also compared for social mobility.

RESULTS

The differences between the social categories were larger at the start than later in the career for breast cancer in women. The category of operations staff was used as a reference, and this analysis shows a difference between the risks associated with supervisors (OR = 2.0) and managers and specialist professions (OR = 1.5). There were large differences according to the type of cancer in men. A socioeconomic gradient in the incidence of cancers of the upper respiratory and digestive tract was observed at every career stage. The gradient was largest at the moment of diagnosis. The odds ratio was 3.4 for supervisors, 7.8 for operations staff and 14.8 for production staff. There was a socioeconomic gradient in lung cancer at all points in the career and in the incidence of the hematopoietic system cancers at mid-career and at diagnosis. No association between socioeconomic status and colon cancer was found. Social mobility accentuated all these results.

CONCLUSION

Socioeconomic status is involved in the development of cancers. Our study suggests that the transition from social to biological processes could act via specific lifestyle and/or work-related risk factors. When there is a social gradient in the incidence of a cancer, an individual's social change is at least as important as his/her original social status in the relationship between cancer and social class.

Social class and health: the puzzling counter-example of British South Asians

British South Asians (with ancestry from the Indian subcontinent) provided a puzzling exception to the British class gradient in mortality during the 1970s. On the assumption that class gradients in health are produced mainly by gradients in standard of living, this might be due to a break in the relation of class to standard of living (change in class structure), or by a break in the relation of standard of living to patterns of health behaviour and health risk (change in class lifestyles). Data on these characteristics are available from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study, where 159 South Asians aged 30-40 (mean age 35) were sampled alongside 319 of the general population in Glasgow. As regards changes in class structure, results indicate that the underclass thesis, which suggests that ethnic minorities are forced into less eligible jobs or into a separate labour market or into unemployment, resulting in a standard of living below that of the general population, still holds good for British South Asians in categories from social class III non-manual downwards. It does not hold good for owners of small businesses, where Sikhs and Hindus in particular have a standard of living equivalent to general population counterparts. However, prosperity is not predictable from levels of education in the subcontinent and from this and other signs it appears that a wholesale redistribution of class chances is occurring among British South Asians, disrupting inter-and intra-generational continuities in the relation between class and standard of living. There is little sign of change in class lifestyles, i.e. in the relation between standard of living and health behaviour or health risk. As yet, though, the new distribution of standard of living is affecting patterns of health behaviour and health risk more strongly than symptom experience or chronic illness, suggesting that a class gradient in health will re-emerge.