IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v174y2017icp197-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being

Author

Listed:
  • Elgar, Frank J.
  • Gariépy, Geneviève
  • Torsheim, Torbjørn
  • Currie, Candace

Abstract

A prevailing hypothesis about the association between income inequality and poor health is that inequality intensifies social hierarchies, increases stress, erodes social and material resources that support health, and subsequently harms health. However, the evidence in support of this hypothesis is limited by cross-sectional, ecological studies and a scarcity of developmental studies. To address this limitation, we used pooled, multilevel data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study to examine lagged, cumulative, and trajectory associations between early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being. Psychosomatic symptoms and life satisfaction were assessed in surveys of 11- to 15-year-olds in 40 countries between 1994 and 2014. We linked these data to national Gini indices of income inequality for every life year from 1979 to 2014. The results showed that exposure to income inequality from 0 to 4 years predicted psychosomatic symptoms and lower life satisfaction in females after controlling lifetime mean income inequality, national per capita income, family affluence, age, and cohort and period effects. The cumulative income inequality exposure in infancy and childhood (i.e., average Gini index from birth to age 10) related to lower life satisfaction in female adolescents but not to symptoms. Finally, individual trajectories in early-life inequality (i.e., linear slopes in Gini indices from birth to 10 years) related to fewer symptoms and higher life satisfaction in females, indicating that earlier exposures mattered more to predicting health and wellbeing. No such associations with early-life income inequality were found in males. These results help to establish the antecedent-consequence conditions in the association between income inequality and health and suggest that both the magnitude and timing of income inequality in early life have developmental consequences that manifest in reduced health and well-being in adolescent girls.

Suggested Citation

  • Elgar, Frank J. & Gariépy, Geneviève & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Currie, Candace, 2017. "Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 197-208.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:174:y:2017:i:c:p:197-208
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616305822
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, Hui, 2012. "Do people die from income inequality of a decade ago?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 36-45.
    2. Lillard, Dean R. & Burkhauser, Richard V. & Hahn, Markus H. & Wilkins, Roger, 2015. "Does early-life income inequality predict self-reported health in later life? Evidence from the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 347-355.
    3. Leigh, Andrew & Jencks, Christopher, 2007. "Inequality and mortality: Long-run evidence from a panel of countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Khlat, Myriam & Jusot, Florence & Ville, Isabelle, 2009. "Social origins, early hardship and obesity: A strong association in women, but not in men?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1692-1699, May.
    5. Karlsson, Martin & Nilsson, Therese & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Leeson, George, 2010. "Income inequality and health: Importance of a cross-country perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 875-885, March.
    6. Marlies E. Jansen, 1984. "Ridit Analysis, A Review," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 38(3), pages 141-158, September.
    7. Torsheim, Torbjorn & Currie, Candace & Boyce, William & Kalnins, Ilze & Overpeck, Mary & Haugland, Siren, 2004. "Material deprivation and self-rated health: a multilevel study of adolescents from 22 European and North American countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 1-12, July.
    8. Robert Evans, 2002. "Interpreting and Addressing Inequalities in Health: From Black to Acheson to Blair to . . . ?," Monograph 000477, Office of Health Economics.
    9. Pickett, K.E. & Mookherjee, J. & Wilkinson, R.G., 2005. "Adolescent birth rates, total homicides, and income inequality in rich countries," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(7), pages 1181-1183.
    10. Jenifer Hamil-Luker & Angela O’rand, 2007. "Gender differences in the link between childhood socioeconomic conditions and heart attack risk in adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(1), pages 137-158, February.
    11. Fairbrother, Malcolm, 2014. "Two Multilevel Modeling Techniques for Analyzing Comparative Longitudinal Survey Datasets," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 119-140, April.
    12. Rözer, Jesper Jelle & Volker, Beate, 2016. "Does income inequality have lasting effects on health and trust?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 37-45.
    13. Pickett, Kate E. & Wilkinson, Richard G., 2015. "Income inequality and health: A causal review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 316-326.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/265 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Petr Badura & Andrea Madarasova Geckova & Dagmar Sigmundova & Erik Sigmund & Jitse P. Dijk & Sijmen A. Reijneveld, 2018. "Can organized leisure-time activities buffer the negative outcomes of unstructured activities for adolescents’ health?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(6), pages 743-751, July.
    2. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming, 2021. "Mama loves you: The gender wage gap and expenditure on children's education in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1015-1034.
    3. Jon Erik Finnvold, 2019. "How Income Inequality and Immigrant Background Affect children’s Use of Mental Healthcare Services in Oslo, Norway," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(6), pages 1881-1896, December.
    4. Ying Jiang & Hua Ming & Yuan Tian & Silin Huang & Ling Sun & Hui-jie Li & Hongchuan Zhang, 2020. "Cumulative Risk and Subjective Well-Being Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents in China: Differential Moderating Roles of Stress Mindset and Resilience," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(7), pages 2429-2449, October.
    5. Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V., 2018. "Social epidemiology for the 21st century," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 240-245.
    6. Maartje Boer & Concepción Moreno-Maldonado & Maxim Dierckens & Michela Lenzi & Candace Currie & Caroline Residori & Lucia Bosáková & Paola Berchialla & Tamsyn Eida & Gonneke Stevens, 2024. "The Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for the Construction of the Family Affluence Scale: Findings from 16 Countries," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(1), pages 395-418, February.
    7. Dalziel, Kim M. & Huang, Li & Hiscock, Harriet & Clarke, Philip M., 2018. "Born equal? The distribution of government Medicare spending for children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 50-54.
    8. Kiwoong Park, 2021. "Does Relative Deprivation in School During Adolescence Get Under the Skin? A Causal Mediation Analysis from the Life Course Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 285-312, February.
    9. Jose Marquez & Louise Lambert & Megan Cutts, 2023. "Geographic, Socio-Demographic and School Type Variation in Adolescent Wellbeing and Mental Health and Links with Academic Competence in the United Arab Emirates," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(2), pages 797-836, April.
    10. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Anne Nolan & Smyth, Emer, 2021. "Risk and protective factors for mental health and wellbeing in childhood and adolescence," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS120.
    12. Bruckauf, Zlata & Walsh, Sophie D., 2018. "Adolescents' multiple and individual risk behaviors: Examining the link with excessive sugar consumption across 26 industrialized countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 133-141.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maskileyson, Dina, 2019. "Health trajectories of immigrants in the United States: Does income inequality of country of origin matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 246-255.
    2. Zheng, Hui & Choi, Yoonyoung & Dirlam, Jonathan & George, Linda, 2022. "Rising childhood income inequality and declining Americans’ health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    3. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2015. "Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-56.
    4. Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V., 2018. "Social epidemiology for the 21st century," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 240-245.
    5. Attari, Muhammad Qasim & Pervaiz, Dr. Zahid & Razzaq Chaudhary, Dr. Amatul, 2017. "Impact of Agricultural Land Inequality on Human Development in Punjab (Pakistan)," MPRA Paper 89070, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Irakli Japaridze & Nagham Sayour, 2021. "Dying from envy: The role of inequality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1374-1392, June.
    7. Nilsson, Therese & Bergh, Andreas, 2012. "Income Inequality and Individual Health: Exploring the Association in a Developing Country," Working Papers 2012:1, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    8. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Dierk Herzer, 2017. "The Long-run Relationship Between Trade and Population Health: Evidence from Five Decades," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 462-487, February.
    10. Swapnanil SenGupta, 2024. "Human Capital Impacts of Income Inequality: An Extensive Empirical Analysis from the African Continent," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, May.
    11. Clément, Matthieu & Levasseur, Pierre & Seetahul, Suneha & Piaser, Lucie, 2021. "Does inequality have a silver lining? Municipal income inequality and obesity in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    12. Kang, Songman & Son, Hyelim & Song, B.K., 2023. "The effect of housing price inequality on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    13. Dinne Skjærlund Christensen & Trine Flensborg-Madsen & Ellen Garde & Åse Marie Hansen & Jolene Masters Pedersen & Erik Lykke Mortensen, 2018. "Early life predictors of midlife allostatic load: A prospective cohort study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, August.
    14. Ibrahima Bocoum & Aurelas B. Tohon & Roger Rukundo & Catherine Macombe & Jean-Pierre Revéret, 2019. "Effect of Income Inequality on Health in Quebec: New Insights from Panel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.
    15. Jennifer Montez & Mark Hayward, 2014. "Cumulative Childhood Adversity, Educational Attainment, and Active Life Expectancy Among U.S. Adults," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 413-435, April.
    16. Bartak, Jakub & Jabłoński, Łukasz & Tomkiewicz, Jacek, 2022. "Does income inequality explain public debt change in OECD countries?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 211-224.
    17. Lillard, Dean R. & Burkhauser, Richard V. & Hahn, Markus H. & Wilkins, Roger, 2015. "Does early-life income inequality predict self-reported health in later life? Evidence from the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 347-355.
    18. Tommy Haugan & Sally Muggleton & Arnhild Myhr, 2021. "Psychological distress in late adolescence: The role of inequalities in family affluence and municipal socioeconomic characteristics in Norway," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-25, July.
    19. Kieron Barclay & Martin Kolk, 2015. "Birth Order and Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(2), pages 613-639, April.
    20. Kangmennaang, Joseph & Elliott, Susan J., 2018. "Towards an integrated framework for understanding the links between inequalities and wellbeing of places in low and middle income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 45-53.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:174:y:2017:i:c:p:197-208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.