Health Lifestyles and the Reproduction of Inequality

健康在我们理解社会不平等方面发挥着越来越大的作用。研究人员和政策制定者认识到，健康行为往往难以改变。为了理解这个问题，一些人开始关注健康的生活方式。这些行为被定义为一组相互关联的健康行为，根植于与对健康、责任和风险的理解相关的社会身份，受知识和资源的影响，对健康和其他生活结果产生重要影响。这种生活方式方法承认健康行为不是凭空发生的；相反，它们在集合中共同出现并相互影响。这些健康行为源于根深蒂固的身份认同，如果这些身份认同本身不改变，就会破坏改变行为的努力。该研究集中在三个主要未解决的问题上：(1)孩子们从父母那里得到了什么样的健康生活方式？(2)这些接受的健康生活方式如何在生命早期演变成实现的健康生活方式？(3)年轻人的健康生活方式对他们的发展和健康有什么影响？结合定性和定量方法，该项目在考虑行为和身份以及塑造它们的社会规范、结构和相互作用时，架起了社会学社会心理学不同“面孔”的桥梁。除健康生活方式外，该项目借鉴并促进了社会学理论的几个领域：不平等的代际再生产、儿童和青年的身份发展、社会化的相互过程、文化健康资本和生命历程理论观点。定量分析使用了三个纵向调查，涵盖了早期生活过程的不同阶段：幼儿纵向研究的出生和幼儿园队列，以及健康调查。该项目还收集原始的定性数据，观察家庭互动，采访家长，并辅以家长焦点小组和学校人员访谈。除了学术、学术和公众传播研究结果外，这项研究还具有造福社会的潜力。了解儿童和青少年健康行为的普遍模式和相关的身份发展，对于最终改善他们的发展、健康和福祉非常重要。了解他们的健康生活方式可能有助于减少他们生活结果的不平等。学生的培训和学习是项目的一个组成部分，研究助理大量参与数据收集、分析和研究结果的传播。该项目将整合到首席研究员的本科和研究生教学中，研究结果将在研究生研讨会上发表。

Health is playing an increasing role in our understandings of social inequality. Researchers and policy makers recognize that health behaviors are often resistant to change. Seeking to understand this problem, some have begun focusing on health lifestyles. These are defined as groups of interrelated health behaviors, rooted in social identities related to understandings of health, responsibility, and risk, that are shaped by knowledge and resources and that have important consequences for health and other life outcomes. This lifestyle approach acknowledges that health behaviors do not happen in a vacuum; rather, they co-occur in sets and influence one another. These sets of health behaviors arise from deeply rooted identities that, if they do not themselves change, can undermine efforts to alter behaviors. The research focuses on three major unanswered questions: (1) What received health lifestyles do children get from their parents? (2) How do those received health lifestyles evolve into achieved health lifestyles across early life? (3) What are the implications of young people's health lifestyles for their development and health? Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this project bridges different "faces" of sociological social psychology in considering both behaviors and identities and the social norms, structures, and interactions that shape them. The project draws from and contributes to several areas of sociological theory besides health lifestyles: the intergenerational reproduction of inequalities, identity development in children and youth, the reciprocal process of socialization, cultural health capital, and the life course theoretical perspective. Quantitative analyses use three longitudinal surveys that cover different phases of the early life course: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study's Birth and Kindergarten Cohorts, and the Add Health survey. The project also collects original qualitative data observing family interactions and interviewing parents, with supplemental parent focus groups and school personnel interviews. In addition to scholarly, academic, and public dissemination of findings, this research has the potential to benefit society. Understanding prevalent patterns of health behaviors and associated identity development among children and youth is important for ultimately improving their development, health, and well-being. Understanding their health lifestyles may help reduce inequalities in their life outcomes. Student training and learning is an integral part of the project, with research assistants heavily involved in data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings. The project will be integrated into the principal investigator's undergraduate and graduate teaching, and findings will be presented in a graduate student workshop.