The Relationship of Socio-economic Status, Labor Force Participation, and Health among Men and Women

Abstract

Using survey data from an extensive sample of Californians in the United States, we examined the relationship among indicators of socio-economic status (SES) and health for men and women in and out of the paid labor force. In contrast to data reported from the mid-1980s in which correlations among SES variables were stronger among men than among women, correlations among education, income, and occupation were similarly high among women and men. All SES variables were significantly related to health, such that as SES increased, self- reported health status increased. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated an additive effect of labor force participation and SES in predicting health among men, with main effects both of labor force participation and of income and education on health. Among women, there was an interactive effect of these variables, such that the relationship of income and of education to health was more pronounced among women who were not in the paid labor force.

The relationship of childhood sexual abuse and depression with somatic symptoms and medical utilization

“…age, marital status) as well as data from prior studies suggesting a strong relationship between health and income (e.g. Ostrove & Adler, 1998) and health and physical abuse (e.g. Leserman et al Not abused, not sexually abused during childhood ; Abused, childhood sexually abused ; CI, confidence interval.…”

Education and the Gender Gaps in Health and Mortality

“…Compared with men, women may experience more day-to-day stress associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, such as poorly paying jobs, economic hardship, routine and oppressive work, and low household income, all of which contribute to poor health. However, men may engage in more dangerous and destructive habits, such as smoking, heavy drinking, using guns, getting in fights, or drinking and driving (Arber and Ginn 1993; Ostrove and Adler 1998; Pampel 2002; Ross and Bird 1994; Umberson 1992; Wamala et al 2001). Men’s dangerous lifestyles may contribute more to fatal health problems that result in earlier death, and less to the everyday, nonfatal, stress-related problems that women experience more (Ross and Bird 1994).…”

Early Environment, Emotions, Responses to Stress, and Health

“…The model fit indices were exceedingly low, indicating that the model was poorly specified (NFI 5 0.67, NNFI 5 0.24, CFI 5 0.67). A second alternative model retained self-rated SES on the grounds that a subjective sense of SES may be influenced by neuroticism (Ostrove & Adler, 1998), but gave neuroticism causal priority in the model again to see if it might account for the subjective SES as well as for the subsequent variables in the model. This model, too, yielded a significant chi square and small fit indices, indicating that it was a poorly specified model (w 2 (15) 5 104.42; NFI 5 0.64, NNFI 5 0.35, CFI 5 0.65).…”