Socioeconomic Status and Health across the Life Course: A Test of the Social Causation and Health Selection Hypotheses

Abstract

This research investigates the merits of the "social causation" and "health selection" explanations for associations between socioeconomic status and self-reported overall health, musculoskeletal health and depression. Using data that include information about individuals' SES and health from childhood through late adulthood, I employ structural equation models that account for errors in measured variables and that allow for explicit tests of various hypotheses about how SES and health are related. For each outcome and for both women and men the results provide no support for the health selection hypothesis. SES affects each health outcome at multiple points in the life course, but the reverse is not true.

Figure 1

Baseline Model

Figure A1

Attrition from the WLS Sample across Waves Note: 1975 respondents include those who participated in the 1975 telephone survey; 1993 respondents include those who participated in the 1993 telephone and mail surveys; and 2004 respondents include those who participated in the 2004 telephone and mail surveys. At each wave, non-respondents include individuals who were not located and individuals who were located but who were unwilling to participate. Of the 5,300 respondents in 2004, 10 were dropped from the analyses because they were not in the modal birth cohort.