A Life-Span Developmental Perspective on Social Status and Health

Abstract

This article presents a life-span developmental (LSD) perspective on the linkages between social status and health. The objective is to develop a conceptual framework that is useful in understanding why people are differentially exposed to risks of disease or protective factors and the social conditions that link the effects of risk and protective factors to the social environment over the life span. The discussion distinguishes between the complementary concepts of "life span," "life cycle," and "life course," critical theoretical distinctions that may help refine hypotheses about the relationship between health and social status. We argue that life-cycle and life-course concepts can be viewed as embedded in a more general LSD perspective. Using the theoretical principles derived from this perspective, the review examines (a) gender differences, (b) race-ethnic experiences, (c) childhood experiences, (d) educational levels, (e) socioeconomic differences, and (f) age differences. The emphasis in the review is to highlight the value of a broader LSD perspective in the study of health inequalities. The article ends with a brief summary of where future research is headed and novel developments in the study of social status and health.

Barriers to outdoor physical activity and unmet physical activity need in older adults

“…Use of education as an indicator of SES is supported by reasoning from health disparity research, according to which the focus, when investigating health inequalities, should be on the effect of the risk factors encountered early in life, not on statuses achieved later in life (Alwin & Wray 2005). Here, a composite measure of SES was chosen to capture as much socioeconomic variation as possible with a single measure.…”

“…As for older people, functional capacity, measured with ADL difficulties, showed a similar trend: people with higher education had better functional capacity (Sulander et al 2006). Socioeconomic status describes a person's achieved status in society through education, occupation and/or income whereas social status also includes ascribed statuses such as age, gender and race (Alwin & Wray 2005). In studies on health and functioning, SES is most often assessed using education, occupation or income .…”

“…Health disparity research has also been conducted from a life course perspective, taking into account factors from the past and the present, thus reflecting resources and risks affecting health over a longer period of time (Braveman 2014b). However, SES might not explain all the variation in health differences and it has been argued that various ascribed statuses, such as age, gender and ethnicity should also be taken into account when investigating health inequalities (Alwin & Wray 2005).…”

“…The home environment is known to be important for older people's psychological well-being and independent functioning, but if home becomes the only environment in which an older person moves, the empowering effect of home can diminish (Gitlin 2003). Also, although it is not possible to draw conclusions about the causality between SES and life-space mobility, it is intuitively more likely that education, which is achieved early in life, modifies the functioning of an individual, rather than life-space mobility affecting education (Alwin & Wray 2005). It can be hypothesized that underlying the demonstrated association between SES and life-space mobility is a causal chain, which can be summarized as follows: during their life course people with low SES have been exposed to risk factors which manifest as high BMI, cognitive difficulties and problems in lower-limb functioning, subsequently leading to lower life-space mobility in old age.…”

Older immigrants’ use of public home care and residential care

“…Reijneveld 1998;Alwin and Wray 2005). Municipal long-term care services are primarily allotted on the basis of an assessment of health and functional impairments (e.g.…”