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Social class assignment and mortality in Sweden

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  • Erikson, Robert

Abstract

The earlier practice of assigning all members of a family to the same social class as that of the household head, typically the father, has in recent years been replaced by either basing individual class position on one's own occupation or of one of the family members, not necessarily the father. These various practices have been extensively scrutinised for more than 20 years. The validity of the approaches has chiefly been tested by checking how well they account for the variation in some criteria, mostly class identification, political attitudes and voting behaviour. Here it is shown, using census data from Sweden, that mortality-rate differences between social classes covering the period 1991-1997 are greater for both men and women when both spouses are assigned to the same social class on the basis of the dominance approach, where the labour market position of either spouse may determine the social class of the family. It is suggested that the common observation that class differences are smaller among women than among men may, at least to some extent, be the result of establishing a woman's class position on the basis of her own occupation rather than the labour market position of her spouse.

Suggested Citation

  • Erikson, Robert, 2006. "Social class assignment and mortality in Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2151-2160, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:62:y:2006:i:9:p:2151-2160
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gottschalk, Peter & Smeeding, Timothy M., 2000. "Empirical evidence on income inequality in industrialized countries," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 261-307, Elsevier.
    2. Koskinen, Seppo & Martelin, Tuija, 1994. "Why are socioeconomic mortality differences smaller among women than among men?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1385-1396, May.
    3. Laurence S. Moss, 2003. "Editor's Introduction," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 315-318, April.
    4. repec:bla:ajecsc:v:62:y:2003:i:4:p:645-648 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Karl Gauffin & Anders Hjern & Bo Vinnerljung & Emma Björkenstam, 2016. "Childhood Household Dysfunction, Social Inequality and Alcohol Related Illness in Young Adulthood. A Swedish National Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Torssander, Jenny & Erikson, Robert, 2008. "Stratification and Mortality - A Comparison of Education, Class, Status and Income," Working Paper Series 5/2008, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    3. Schmitz, Hendrik & Tawiah, Beatrice Baaba, 2023. "Life-cycle health effects of compulsory schooling," Ruhr Economic Papers 1006, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Alexi Gugushvili & Martin McKee & Michael Murphy & Aytalina Azarova & Darja Irdam & Katarzyna Doniec & Lawrence King, 2019. "Intergenerational Mobility in Relative Educational Attainment and Health-Related Behaviours," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 413-441, January.
    5. Marlen Toch-Marquardt & Gwenn Menvielle & Terje A Eikemo & Ivana Kulhánová & Margarete C Kulik & Matthias Bopp & Santiago Esnaola & Domantas Jasilionis & Netta Mäki & Pekka Martikainen & Enrique Regid, 2014. "Occupational Class Inequalities in All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality among Middle-Aged Men in 14 European Populations during the Early 2000s," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(9), pages 1-11, September.
    6. Clougherty, Jane Ellen & Eisen, Ellen A. & Slade, Martin D. & Kawachi, Ichiro & Cullen, Mark R., 2009. "Workplace status and risk of hypertension among hourly and salaried aluminum manufacturing employees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 304-313, January.

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