Adult Income Research Articles

PATERNAL INVESTMENT AND STATUS-RELATED CHILD OUTCOMES: TIMING OF FATHER'S DEATH AFFECTS OFFSPRING SUCCESS

Recent work in human behavioural ecology has suggested that analyses focusing on early childhood may underestimate the importance of paternal investment to child outcomes since such investment may not become crucial until adolescence or beyond. This may be especially important in societies with a heritable component to status, as later investment by fathers may be more strongly related to a child's adult status than early forms of parental investment that affect child survival and child health. In such circumstances, the death or absence of a father may have profoundly negative effects on the adult outcomes of his children that cannot be easily compensated for by the investment of mothers or other relatives. This proposition is tested using a multigenerational dataset from Bangalore, India, containing information on paternal mortality as well as several child outcomes dependent on parental investment during adolescence and young adulthood. The paper examines the effects of paternal death, and the timing of paternal death, on a child's education, adult income, age at marriage and the amount spent on his or her marriage, along with similar characteristics of spouses. Results indicate that a father's death has a negative impact on child outcomes, and that, in contrast to some findings in the literature on father absence, the effects of paternal death are strongest for children who lose their father in late childhood or adolescence.

Socioeconomic status and the development of depressive symptoms from childhood to adulthood: A longitudinal analysis across 27 years of follow-up in the Young Finns study

We examined two alternative hypotheses on the association between low socioeconomic status (SES) and depressive symptoms: social causation and health selection. The latent growth curve (LGC) approach was used to examine trajectories of change in depressive symptoms over a period of 15 years in a dataset (the Young Finns study) consisting of a nationally representative sample of adolescents and young adults (n = 1613). Depressive symptoms were examined at four examination phases between 1992 and 2007. SES was measured as parental SES childhood (baseline of the study in 1980) and as the participants own SES in 2007 when the participants had reached adulthood and were between 30 and 45 years of age. The level of depressive symptoms was associated (r = −.14) with a slower decrease in symptoms during follow-up. Lower age, male gender, higher parental occupational grade but not parental income and lower negative emotionality in childhood were associated with a lower level of depressive symptoms. Higher age was also associated with a slower decrease in depressive symptoms. A lower level of depression and faster decrease in depressive symptoms were associated with a higher socioeconomic position in adulthood. A similar pattern was found in the relationship between the level of depression and income in adulthood. We concluded that the effect of childhood SES on depressive symptoms diminishes over time, but a higher level of, and especially faster decline of, depressive symptoms predicts the adulthood occupational SES gradient.

Another Look at Vehicle Miles Traveled

This study analyzed the determinants of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey. First, total VMT models were estimated across all households. Next, the survey sample was segmented by the number of vehicles owned, and separate models were estimated for each sample segment. Finally, with a focus on two-vehicle households, a seemingly unrelated regression model was formulated to analyze total household VMT and the VMT share of each vehicle. Household increases in income and number of vehicles, workers, adults, and children all led to higher VMT. Population density and gasoline cost negatively affected VMT. Other findings of the total VMT models were related to telecommuting and vehicle characteristics. Results indicate that having the option to telecommute and owning SUVs, pickup trucks, vans, or hybrid vehicles increase VMT. If the driver of a vehicle was a female, older, unemployed, or did not hold a bachelor's degree, that vehicle's share of the total household VMT decreased. If this vehicle was an SUV, a pickup truck, a van, or a hybrid, it was likely to be used more. These significant effects have important implications for understanding the substitution patterns in multivehicle households.

高齢者における所得の相対的剥奪と死亡リスク

物質的に困窮していなくとも，他者と比較して自身の所得や生活の水準が相対的に低いことが心理社会的なストレスとなり健康を蝕む可能性があり，これは相対的剥奪仮説とよばれる。日本人高齢者において相対的剥奪が死亡リスクを上昇させるかを検証した。愛知老年学的評価研究（AGES）2003年ベースラインデータに介護保険給付データに基づく2007年までの死亡に関する情報を個人単位で結合した。調査参加者は愛知県および高知県内の8市町村に住み，要介護認定を受けておらず，基本的なADLが自立している高齢者とした。21,047名のうち主要変数に欠損のなかった16,023名を解析対象とした。同性・同一の年齢階級・同一市町村内在住の3項目の組み合わせで定義した集団内における所得の相対的剥奪をYitzhaki係数の変法で評価してCox比例ハザード分析を行った。平均1,358日間の追跡期間中1,236名の死亡を認めた。性・年齢階級・居住市町村を同じくする集団内における相対的剥奪1標準偏差増加ごとのハザード比（95%信頼区間）は，男性で1.20（1.06-1.36），女性で1.17（0.97-1.41）であった（絶対所得・年齢・婚姻状況・学歴・疾病治療有無で調整）。生活習慣（喫煙・飲酒・健診受診）でさらに調整したところ，ハザード比はわずかに減少した。所得水準にかかわらず，他者に比べて相対的に貧しいことが死亡リスクを高め，特に男性で強い関連がある可能性が考えられた。

Socioeconomic pathways to depressive symptoms in adulthood: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979

The existence of a direct effect of early socioeconomic position (SEP) on adult mental health outcomes net of adult SEP is still debated. This question demands the explicit modeling of pathways linking early SEP to adult SEP and mental health. In light of this background, we pursue two objectives in this study. First, we examine whether depressive symptoms in adulthood can be fit in a trajectory featuring both an intercept, or baseline range of depressive symptoms that varied between individuals, and a slope describing the average evolution of depressive symptoms over the years. Second, we estimate the direct and indirect pathways linking early SEP, respondents' education and adult household income, with a particular focus on whether early SEP retains a significant direct effect on the trajectory of depressive symptoms once adult SEP is entered into the pathway model. Drawing from 29 years of cohort data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, a survey that has been following a national probability sample of American civilian and military youth (Zagorsky and White, 1999), we used structural equation models to estimate the pathways between parents' education, respondent's education, and latent growth curves of household income and depressive symptoms. We found that the effect of parents' education was entirely mediated by respondent's education. In turn, the effect of respondent's education was largely mediated by household income. In conclusion, our findings showed that the socioeconomic attainment process that is rooted in parents' education and leads to respondent's education and then to household income is a crucial pathway for adult mental health. These results suggest that increasing educational opportunities may be an effective policy to break the intergenerational transmission of low socioeconomic status and poor mental health.

Effects of a lipid-rich diet on adult parasitoid income resources and survival

Effectiveness of parasitoids as natural enemies in agro-ecosystems depends on key traits such as fecundity and longevity. Energy sources allocated into survival and reproduction can be mobilized from capital stores acquired during larval feeding, or from income resources through adult feeding. Adult parasitoids have a restricted diet consisting solely of carbohydrates and most species do not replenish lipid levels after emergence from their host. Here, we have adopted a novel approach that could improve pest elimination by parasitoids, in which we added different ratios of olive oil to the food of adults to reveal the potential of a lipid-rich diet to increase lipid levels and allocation into survival. Our results show that males of the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata had higher lipid levels when fed a diet containing a ratio of 90:10% honey to olive oil when compared to males at emergence and males fed honey-only. For females, lipid levels at emergence were similar to those of females fed a diet supplemented with a ratio of 75:25% honey to olive oil, yet in both of these treatments lipid levels were significantly higher when compared to females fed honey-only. This suggests that females on a lipid-containing diet economized on their lipid use. In contrast, the survival of males and females was negatively affected by the addition of olive oil and no differences in survival were found when wasps were fed 1day on various ratios of honey to olive oil compared to honey-only. Our results show that the addition of a lipid source can increase or maintain nutrient availability and further research into lipid supplementation could minimize detrimental effects in order to increase the effectiveness of parasitoids in certain agro-ecosystems.

The Captain of the Men of Death and His Shadow: Long-Run Impacts of Early Life Pneumonia Exposure

We leverage introduction of the first antibiotic therapies in 1937 to examine impacts of pneumonia in infancy on adult education, employment, disability, income and income mobility, and identify large impacts on each. We then examine how racial segregation in the pre-Civil Rights Era moderated the long-run benefits of antibiotics among blacks. We find that blacks born in more segregated states reaped smaller and less pervasive long run benefits despite sharp drops in pneumonia exposure. Our findings demonstrate causal effects of early life health on economic mobility and the importance of an investment-rewarding institutional environment in realization of the full potential of a healthy start.

Abstract B24: Lifecourse socioeconomic factors and mammographic breast density

Abstract Breast cancer risk varies by socioeconomic status (SES), but it is unclear whether similar SES patterns exist for mammographic density, a strong intermediate marker of future breast cancer risk. Evidence on the associations between SES and mammographic density can further support the validity of mammographic density as an intermediate marker of breast cancer risk. Furthermore, given that breast cancer risk develops over the lifecourse, socioeconomic conditions in early life periods may be associated with density. We examined the associations between early life (infancy) and adult socioeconomic factors and mammographic density in 348 women from the Childhood Health and Development study, a birth cohort established in 1960–1967 in California. We further investigated the mediating role of adult SES, adult body mass index (BMI, Kg/m2) and age at first live birth in the associations between early life SES and density. Data on maternal education and family income were reported by participants’ mothers around the time of participants’ birth. Data on participants’ own education, and adult household income, ethnicity, BMI and reproductive events were collected directly from adult participants. We obtained participants’ most recent mammograms from the facilities where mammograms were performed and evaluated the proportion of dense area (dense area/breast area in percentage) and dense breast tissue (dense area in cm2) using Cumulus software (average age=43.0±2.1). We used linear regression analyses to investigate the associations between parental and own education and income and percent density and dense area. We also examined the associations of density with educational and income trajectories from early life to adulthood (persistent low, downward mobility, upward mobility vs. persistent high group). Maternal education, adult education and adult income had moderate to strong correlations (e.g., Spearman correlation coefficients for adult education with maternal education and adult income were 0.34 and 0.42, respectively), but early life family income had minimal correlation with other SES variables (range of 0.16 to 0.21). In separate models that adjusted for age and ethnicity, maternal education and adult education were each inversely associated with percent density (e.g., β=-10.4 95% confidence interval [CI]: −17.8, −3.0 & = −10.9, 95% CI: −17.7,−4.1 for lowest vs. highest groups for maternal education and adult education, respectively) and with dense area (e.g., β=−9.4, 95% CI: −18.0, −0.8 & β=−11.2, 95% CI: −19.7, −2.7 for lowest vs. highest groups for maternal education and adult education, respectively). Mutual adjustment for maternal and adult education attenuated the estimates of their associations with both percent density and dense area. The associations between maternal and adult education and percent density were substantially reduced by adjustment for BMI, with further small reduction from adjustment for age at first live birth. BMI and age at first live birth resulted in relatively small reductions in the associations between education and dense area but educational differences in dense area were no longer statistically significant in the final model. Results of social trajectory models suggested lower percent density and dense area for women with persistent low education and downward mobility that were substantially accounted for by adjustment for BMI and age at first birth for percent density, and to a lesser extent, for dense area. Early life and adult income, and income trajectories did not show any significant associations with either measure of density. In summary, the inverse educational patterns in mammographic density, observed for both maternal and own education, parallel SES variations in breast cancer risk. Educational differences in percent density, but not dense area, were mainly explained by adult BMI, which may be due to the inverse association between BMI and non-dense breast tissue. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2011;20(10 Suppl):B24.

Polarization Measurement and Inference in Many Dimensions When Subgroups Can Not Be Identified

Abstract The most popular general univariate polarization indexes for discrete and continuous variables are extended and combined to describe the extent of polarization between agents in a distribution defined over a collection of many discrete and continuous agent characteristics. A formula for the asymptotic variance of the index is also provided. The implementation of the index is illustrated with an application to Chinese urban household data drawn from six provinces in the years 1987 and 2001 (years spanning the growth and urbanization period subsequent to the economic reforms). The data relates to household adult equivalent log income, adult equivalent living space, which are both continuous variables and the education of the head of household which is a discrete variable. For this data set combining the characteristics changes the view of polarization that would be inferred from considering the indices individually.

Indices of socioeconomic position across the life course as predictors of coronary calcification in black and white men and women: Coronary artery risk development in young adults study

Few studies have investigated the association of socioeconomic status (SES) and coronary artery calcification (CAC) and only one study has examined African Americans separately from Caucasians, despite empirical evidence suggesting that blacks have equivalent or lower CAC, relative to whites. We tested the hypotheses that lower childhood SES and lower average education, occupation, and income and change in SES (slope) in adulthood are related to risk of CAC in blacks and whites in the US CARDIA study. Parental education and occupation were measured at study entry (Year 0 in 1985–1986) and participant education, occupation, and household income were evaluated multiple times throughout a 20 year follow-up period at four sites in the United States. CAC was measured at Year 20 in 3138 (45% black) participants in CARDIA; 19% had CAC. Latent growth models and multivariate logistic regression analyses adjusted for the major risk factors for CAC. Multivariate models showed that lower paternal education in blacks and lower maternal occupational status in the full sample and in whites were related to higher risk of any CAC, independent of adult SES. Lower average adult education, occupation, and income were related to higher risk of any CAC, with the effects primarily in blacks. Our results are the first to show that SES, measured retrospectively and prospectively in multiple ways, is related to CAC, and the first to document the effects primarily in blacks.

Socioeconomic position is positively associated with blood pressure dipping among African-American adults: the Jackson Heart Study.

Blunted nocturnal blood pressure (NBP) dipping is a significant predictor of cardiovascular events. Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) may be an important predictor of NBP dipping, especially in African Americans (AA). However, the determinants of NBP dipping are not fully understood. The cross-sectional associations of individual and neighborhood SEP with NBP dipping, assessed by 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring, were examined among 837 AA adults (Mean age: 59.2 ± 10.7 years; 69.2% women), after adjustment for age, sex, hypertension status, body mass index (BMI), health behaviors, office, and 24-h systolic BP (SBP). The mean hourly SBP was consistently lower among participants in the highest category of individual income compared to those in the lowest category, and these differences were most pronounced during sleeping hours. The odds of NBP dipping (defined as >10% decline in the mean asleep SBP compared to the mean awake SBP) increased by 31% (95% confidence interval: 13-53%) and 18% (95% confidence interval: 0-39%) for each s.d. increase in income and years of education, respectively, after multivariable adjustment. NBP dipping is patterned by income and education in AA adults even after accounting for known risk factors. These results suggest that low SEP is a risk factor for insufficient NBP dipping in AA.

The timing of resource availability does not affect reproductive allotment or the rate of oocyte development in the flesh fly, Sarcophaga crassipalpis

The flesh fly, Sarcophaga crassipalpis, is anautogenous and largely relies on adult-acquired income resources for reproduction, but allocates some larvally derived capital into the first clutch. Therefore, the timing of adult resource acquisition may be important for both reproductive timing and magnitude of capital vs. income resources allocated to reproduction. Specifically, we predict that flesh flies that wait longer to acquire adult income resources will allocate greater quantities of larvally derived capital to the first clutch. 2. To test how reproductive allocation in flesh flies responds to the timing of adult protein availability, we provided pulses of protein only on day 3, 6, 9, or 12 after eclosion, a series of times equivalent to the onset of oogensis and early, middle and late oogenic development in individuals fed ad libitum. Protein pulses contained isotopically distinct carbon ( 13 C), allowing us to distinguish between larval capital and adult-income resources allocated towards reproduction. 3. Neither the timing of oocyte development nor reproductive allotment (egg number by egg size) was altered by the timing of protein availability. 4. There was no effect of adult protein acquisition timing on the quantity of larvally derived somatic capital vs. adult-acquired income carbon allocated to reproduction. While flesh flies have remarkable pre-feeding plasticity in reproductive timing, they appear to have little post-feeding plasticity in allocation of stored reserves towards reproduction.

Early Childhood Stimulation in the Developing and Developed World: If Not Now, When?

Childhood mortality in developing countries remains the most dramatic issue confronting the public health and pediatric communities; each year there are more than 8 million deaths in children younger than 5 years.1,–,3 Mortality, however, is “the tip of the iceberg”4 of the serious problems that face children in the developing world. Importantly, it is conservatively estimated that more than 200 million children younger than 5 years (∼40% of those living in developing countries) do not reach their potential in cognitive development because of problems associated with extreme poverty: malnutrition severe enough to lead to growth retardation; iodine and iron deficiency; inadequate cognitive and social-emotional stimulation; and other less well-documented factors (social risk, environmental toxins, and infectious diseases).4,5 Inadequate early childhood development leads to poor school performance, low adult incomes, intergenerational transmission of poverty, and negative impact on national development. In this issue of Pediatrics , Walker et al6 report on the adult follow-up of growth-retarded 9- to 24-month-old Jamaican children in their landmark study, … Address correspondence to Benard P. Dreyer, MD, Department of Pediatrics, New York University School of Medicine, NBV 8 East 11, 550 First Ave, New York, NY 10016. E-mail: benard.dreyer{at}nyumc.org

Breaking the law? Illegal livelihoods from a Protected Area in Uganda

Forests are important to local livelihoods and regulating access to forests will have consequences to those livelihoods and may promote illegal harvesting. This study analyses how local people make a living, focusing on the illegal collection of a forest's resources following its declaration as a Protected Area (PA). A household survey was conducted between October and December 2005, combining semi-structured individual household interviews and village level focus group discussions. Six sub-counties bordering the Rwenzori Mountain National Park in Uganda were chosen at random and two sample villages randomly selected from each. Through a participatory wealth ranking exercise, all the individual households in each sample village were assigned to one of three categories: rich, medium or poor. From this stratified list five individual households were randomly selected from each category for semi-structured interviews. Household livelihood outcomes were assessed and a fractional logit regression was used to estimate factors influencing dependency on forest income. Households with less access to assets exhibited greater dependence on forest resources. The average household was poor with a per adult equivalent unit income of 0.5 USD/day, with 18.6% of their income being derived from environmental resources. Based on income per adult equivalent unit, households were divided into poor and less poor. Both categories reported illegal collection of forest products. The poor households derived 32% of their environmental income and 12% of their total income from the park compared to the less poor at 18% and 4.5% respectively. The park resources reduced income inequality, as well as the incidence and depth of poverty by 2.8, 3.0, and 5.0 percentage points, respectively. Small reductions in the incidence of poverty suggest that forest resources may not be reliable as a pathway out of poverty, but the poverty depth measure shows that forest resources have a significant impact on helping to make the poor less poor. Under such circumstances, our observation is that increased law enforcement alone is unlikely to protect the park. Interventions that allow managed access to these resources in the short term, whilst creating operational opportunities outside the areas to cater for local peoples' rights and needs in the longer term may be more suitable.

Money and happiness: does age make a difference?

ABSTRACTAlthough the factors that influence people's perception of happiness have long been a focus for scholars, research to date has not offered conclusive findings on the relationships between income, age and happiness. This study examined the relationship between money and happiness across age groups. Analysing data from United States General Social Surveys from 1972 to 2006, this study finds that even after controlling for all the major socio-demographic variables, income (whether household income or personal equivalised income) had a significant positive association with happiness for young and middle-age adults, but it was not the same case with older adults. After controlling for the major socio-demographic variables, there was no evidence of a significant relationship between income (whichever definition) and happiness for older adults. The results also showed that the effect of household income on happiness was significantly smaller for older adults than for young or middle-age adults in the model controlling for major socio-demographic variables. The relationship between household income and happiness no longer differed significantly across age groups after social comparison variables were included. The relationship between equivalised income and happiness did not vary significantly by age group after controlling for the major socio-demographic variables.

Polarization Measurement and Inference in Many Dimensions When Subgroups Cannot Be Identified

The most popular general univariate polarization indices for discrete (Esteban and Ray 1994), and continuous (Duclos, Esteban and Ray 2004) variables are combined and extended to describe the extent of polarization between agents in a distribution defined over a collection of many discrete and continuous agent characteristics. A formula for the asymptotic variance of the index is also provided. The implementation of the index is illustrated with an application to Chinese urban household data drawn from six provinces in the years 1987 and 2001 (years spanning the growth and urbanization period subsequent to the economic reforms). The data relates to household adult equivalent log income, adult equivalent living space, which are both continuous variables and the education of the head of household which is a discrete variable. For this data set combining the characteristics changes the view of polarization that would be inferred from considering the indices individually.

Immigration, Income, Drinking and Obesity in African American Adults

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between immigration status, income, drinking and overweight and obesity in African American adults residing in the United States using an internet web based survey. Data on 303 adult African American immigrants and non-immigrants was collected using a self-administered web based survey. Respondents were recruited using a snowball sampling technique to obtain a convenience sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis were used to test the independent effects of the immigration status while controlling for confounding effects of demographic, social and behavioral variables. The results of the study showed no significant difference between obesity and immigration status in black adults residing in the US (adjusted odds ration = 1.1095, P = 0.7489). Significance at the P < 0.05 level was demonstrated for obesity and two independent variables: age (OR = 1.0332, P = 0.0298) and days per month consumed more than 5 alcoholic beverages (OR = 1.7735, P = 0.0001). Adult African American immigrants in this study sample were not at risk of being obese due to their immigration status. However, age and days in a month in which more than 5 alcoholic beverages are consumed were significant risk factors for obesity. Primary care providers should be alert for obesity and alcohol consumption in this population.

Socioeconomic resources and living arrangements of older adults in Lebanon: who chooses to live alone?

ABSTRACTDuring recent decades, Lebanon has experienced demographic and social changes which, coupled with political instability, have led to waves of youth migration and a higher proportion of older adults living alone. This paper uses the 2004 data of the ‘Pan Arab Project for Family Health’ to assess the levels of various living arrangements and to examine the correlates of living alone, with a focus on economic resources. The findings reveal that 12 per cent of older adults in Lebanon lived alone (17.3 per cent of women and 6.2 per cent of men). Financially better-off older adults and those who reported being satisfied with their income were, respectively, 4.4 and 1.7 times significantly more likely to live alone than their counterparts. The incomes of Lebanese older adults were mainly provided by their children (74.8%) and a relatively small share derived from pension schemes. Contrary to findings from other Arab countries, variations in living arrangements among Lebanese older adults seem to follow the western model whereby wealthier older individuals are more likely to live alone and to be residentially independent. Further studies are warranted to examine to what extent this trend is the result of past migration of adult children who are now established elsewhere and sending remittances home.

Association between major depression, depressive symptoms and personal income in US adults with diabetes

ObjectiveAlthough the association between diabetes and depression outcomes has been well studied, very little is known about the association between depression and personal income in adults with diabetes. We examined the association between major depression, number of depressive symptoms and personal income among individuals with diabetes. MethodsWe used the two-stage Heckman procedure to estimate adjusted personal income by major depression status and number of depressive symptoms for 1818 adults with diabetes from the nationally representative 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. STATA V.10 was used for statistical analysis to account for the complex survey design. ResultsIn a fully adjusted model with major depression as a binary variable, major depression was associated with $2838 lower personal income. In a separate model with depressive symptoms as a continuous variable, each additional symptom was associated with $1235 lower personal income. Compared with being white/non-Hispanic, being black/non-Hispanic (−$4640) was associated with decreased personal income. Compared with excellent health status, fair health status (−$12,172) and poor health status (−$13,835) were associated with lower income. Relative to private insurance, public insurance only (−$8413) and being uninsured (−$9600) were associated with decreased income. ConclusionsAmong adults with diabetes, major depression and depressive symptoms are associated with lower personal income, after adjusting for relevant confounders. This finding suggests that aggressively diagnosing and treating depression as well as keeping people free of depressive symptoms can have huge human capital savings over the employment lifetime of individuals with diabetes and depression.

Personality and Labour Market Income: Evidence from Longitudinal Data

AbstractThis study contributes to the literature on how personality is rewarded in the labour market by examining the relationship between personality and labour market income. Our results suggest that adulthood extraversion is positively associated with income when education, work experience, and unemployment history, measured prospectively from longitudinal data, are controlled for. In addition, childhood constructiveness indicating active and well‐controlled behaviour has a positive association with income in adulthood.