Abstract
BackgroundThe experience of childhood poverty has a long-lasting, adverse impact on physical health outcomes in adulthood. We examined the mediating effects of adult socioeconomic status (SES) and social support on the association between childhood poverty and adult health-risk behaviors.MethodsCross-sectional data collected from Japanese community residents (N = 3836) were used. A binary indicator of the experience of childhood poverty was constructed by utilizing retrospectively assessed standard of living at age 15 and a set of parental SES variables. The associations of childhood poverty with smoking, lack of exercise, poor dietary habits, and excessive drinking at the time of survey were examined by logistic regression analysis. A mediation analysis was conducted to estimate the magnitudes of the mediating effects of adult SES and social support on these associations.ResultsAdult SES and social support together mediated 64.0, 29.4 and 30.6 % of the impacts of the experience of childhood poverty on smoking, lack of exercise, and poor dietary habits, respectively. Educational attainment had the largest mediating effect (58.2 %) on the impact of the experience of childhood poverty on smoking.ConclusionsThe results suggest that interventions and policies for supporting children living in poverty should aim to enhance their future SES and provide better social support, as this might improve their overall health.
Highlights
The experience of childhood poverty has a long-lasting, adverse impact on physical health outcomes in adulthood
In brief, the results indicated that adult socioeconomic status (SES) and social support together mediated a substantial portion of the impacts of the experience of childhood poverty on adult health-risk factors
Educational attainment, household income, occupational status, and social support were associated with experience of childhood poverty (Table 4)
Summary
The experience of childhood poverty has a long-lasting, adverse impact on physical health outcomes in adulthood. We examined the mediating effects of adult socioeconomic status (SES) and social support on the association between childhood poverty and adult health-risk behaviors. Studies have shown that the experience of having low SES in childhood is associated with poor health in adulthood, largely due to harmful habitual behaviors, such as smoking, maintaining a sedentary lifestyle, poor dietary habits, and excessive drinking [4]. The experience of childhood poverty might reduce an individual’s likelihood of good educational attainment, occupational achievement, and future earning potential [5,6,7] These factors could, in turn, lead to an increased likelihood of smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor dietary habits, and a sedentary lifestyle [8, 9]. A number of studies have examined the association of childhood SES, mostly measured by either the father’s occupation or education, with these health-risk behaviors in adulthood [10,11,12,13]
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