Social inequalities, Psychological factors, and health

University Of Wisconsin Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): This research will investigate linkages between life course social inequalities, psychological factors, and adult physical health. Specifically, differences in several dimensions of socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity will be examined as potential social determinants of differences in affect, personality style, sense of control, self-evaluation, life management schemas, social well-being, and religiosity/spirituality. These psychological factors, in turn, will be examined in terms of their influence on health status (health perceptions, functional status, symptom and illness reports, mortality). The hypothesis that differences in psychological factors help mediate and moderate the influence of SES and race/ethnicity on health will be explored. Further, two hypotheses about the pathways linking psychological factors to physical health will be evaluated: 1) the "health behavior mediation" hypothesis, which posits that differences in psychological factors lead to differences in health behaviors, which, in turn lead to differences in physical health, and 2) the "psychological characteristic stress moderation" hypothesis, which posits that differences in psychological factors lead to differences in the way individuals adapt to life histories of cumulative disadvantage and stressful life events/transitions, which in turn, lead to differences in physical health. All analyses will also explore whether pathways differ by gender. This work will use expansive data from three large population sample surveys: 1) the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a study of 10,317 Wisconsin high school graduates in 1957, which includes information from main respondents in 1957 (age 18), 1964 (age 25), 1975 (age 36), 1992-93 (age 53), together with information from selected siblings in 1977 and 1992-93; 2) the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) 1987-88, 1992-93, which includes two waves of information from 13,007 American adults aged 19-95 in 1987-88; and 3) the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), 1995, which includes information from 3,485 primary respondents aged 25-74 in 1995 and 1,000 siblings of primary respondents. Multivariate regression models, event-history models, and structural equation models will be estimated as appropriate.