Abstract
IntroductionWe apply capital interplay theory to health inequalities in Switzerland by investigating the interconnected effects of parental cultural, economic and social capitals and personal educational stream on the self-rated health of young Swiss men who live with their parents.MethodsWe apply logistic regression modelling to self-rated health in original cross-sectional survey data collected during mandatory conscription of Swiss male citizens in 2010 and 2011 (n = 23,975).ResultsIn comparison with sons whose parents completed mandatory schooling only, sons with parents who completed technical college or university were significantly more likely to report very good or excellent self-rated health. Parental economic capital was an important mediating factor in this regard. Number of books in the home (parental cultural capital), family economic circumstances (parental economic capital) and parental ties to influential people (parental social capital) were also independently associated with the self-rated health of the sons. Although sons in the highest educational stream tended to report better health than those in the lowest, we found little evidence for a health-producing intergenerational transmission of capitals via the education stream of the sons. Finally, the positive association between personal education and self-rated health was stronger among sons with relatively poorly educated parents and stronger among sons with parents who were relatively low in social capital.ConclusionsOur study provides empirical support for the role of capital interplays, social processes in which capitals interpenetrate or co-constitute one another, in the intergenerational production of the health of young men in Switzerland.
Highlights
We apply capital interplay theory to health inequalities in Switzerland by investigating the interconnected effects of parental cultural, economic and social capitals and personal educational stream on the self-rated health of young Swiss men who live with their parents
First we examine whether the health effect of the educational stream of the sons is conditional upon the education level of the parents, hypothesizing that personal education will be more strongly associated with self-rated health among sons with higher educated parents than among sons with lower educated parents
We examine whether the health effect of the educational stream of the sons is conditional upon the number of books in the home, hypothesizing that personal education will be more strongly associated with self-rated health among sons with parents who are relatively rich in this form of cultural capital
Summary
We apply capital interplay theory to health inequalities in Switzerland by investigating the interconnected effects of parental cultural, economic and social capitals and personal educational stream on the self-rated health of young Swiss men who live with their parents. We investigate whether and how the cultural, economic and social capitals of Swiss parents and the educational stream of their sons influence the self-rated health of the sons. Cultural capital refers to material and non-material resources that originate in prevailing social. Previous research indicates that each of these three distinct forms of capital is implicated in health inequalities. The health effects of institutionalized cultural capital and economic capital have been extensively investigated under the rubric of socioeconomic status and health [5,6,7,8]. These studies have documented distinct health effects of the various forms of capital, typically finding that, all else being equal, more capital tends to correspond with better health
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