Childhood health and social class reproduction in China

Abstract

In previous studies on social stratification and mobility in China, education is considered as the core mediatory factor in social reproduction and mobility. This paper, however, investigates how childhood health affects social stratification. Using data from Urbanization and Labor Migrant National Survey (2012), this study examines the effects of nutrition, hygiene, and health before age 14 on adult socioeconomic status attainment, including education, the international socioeconomic indexes of first job and current job, and family income per head. The structural equation model results show that the nutrition intake (whether one experienced starvation and the frequency of fish and meat intake) and hygiene (indicated by the source of drinking water and the toilet type) have significant effect on adult socioeconomic status attainment. However, the effects change at different life course stages. Moreover, childhood health (indicated by adult height) has significant impact on adult socioeconomic status attainment, but no significant impact on the international socioeconomic indexes of first job and current job. We conclude that investment in childhood health is an important mechanism affecting social class reproduction and mobility. Therefore, health intervention for children from poor and disadvantaged families are necessary. It will benefit children’s education and encourage upward mobility.

Intergenerational reproduction and adult self-rated physical health in China

“…In particular, people with higher education and higher household incomes were less likely to be unhealthy. This is not surprising given previous research on socioeconomic resources and self-rated health in western countries ( Winkleby et al, 1992 ) and in China ( Huang & Yin, 2013 ; Wang, 2012 ; Hong and Liu, 2021 ). Strong links between education level, labour market opportunities and lifestyle practices described in previous research ( Huang & Yin, 2013 ) potentially explain the associations between personal socioeconomic resources and self-rated physical health reported in this study.…”

“…In Chinese society, parental socioeconomic resources are crucial to their children's accumulation of resources in adulthood ( Chen et al, 2019 ; Fu & George, 2015 ; Hong and Liu, 2021 ; Hong & Zhao, 2015 ; Wu, Qi, Yang, Ye, & Sun, 2019 ). In this study, we link parental resources (father's education, father's type of work unit, father's CCP membership and self-reported childhood social class) to personal resources (education, equivalized household income and CCP membership) in an investigation of the intergenerational production of self-rated physical health in Chinese society.…”

“…Health-selective mobility, by contrast, contends that health status is a screening mechanism for personal social mobility wherein people with better health are better able to obtain higher socioeconomic status ( West, 1991 ). Researchers in China who have investigated associations between socioeconomic status and health (Hong & Chen, 2017 ; Hong & Liu, 2021 ; Huang & Yin, 2013 ; Wang, 2012 ) have typically concluded that both processes are relevant for the health of Chinese people but that the explanatory power of social causation is stronger than that of health-selective mobility ( Wang, 2012 ). Consistent with these studies, the current study applies a social causation perspective to the investigation of socioeconomic health inequalities in China.…”

“…However, this process has likely only been a factor in the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic resources since 1977 when standardized university entrance exams were reintroduced to Chinese society. Previous research related to intergenerational reproduction and health in China has mainly focused on how childhood health affects socioeconomic status and then health in adulthood (e.g., Hong & Liu, 2021 ). However, no previous research has investigated how parental socioeconomic status affects self-rated health in adulthood by way of adult socioeconomic status in the Chinese context.…”

The paradox of seeking help: Socioeconomic inequality in medical crowdfunding in the era of the mobile internet

“…For example, higher SES patients are more likely to follow doctors' advice and pool various medical resources needed for treatment. Therefore, they see SES as a meta mechanism for health inequalities (Lutfey and Freese, 2005), making it the fundamental theoretical foundation in health stratification research in China (Hong and Liu, 2019;Jiao, 2014Jiao, , 2018Jiao and Bao, 2020;Wang, 2011Wang, , 2012Wang, , 2017.…”