Childhood Economic Resources and Mature Adult Health

项目摘要 最近的研究提供了新的证据，表明儿童时期的经济劣势会损害儿童的健康。 老年人尽管做出了宝贵的贡献，但美国对这一挑衅性主题的研究大多依赖于 对过去几十年的童年资源的回顾性回忆。即使有前瞻性数据， 文学在很大程度上使用了儿童经济资源的衡量标准，这些标准并没有上升到国际领先水平。 标准我们通过更充分地结合国际领先的技术，以关键的方式改进过去的研究。 收入衡量标准纳入健康研究。我们将使用收入动态的面板研究 （PSID），一项大型的，具有全国代表性的研究，前瞻性地衡量儿童的经济资源， 以及成年期的各种健康结果。我们利用PSID的关键优势， 与跨国等效文件（CNEF）合并：全面和更高质量的前瞻性 衡量儿童收入的指标，包括税收和转移支付。我们将战略性地利用 PSID-CNEF的波，包括来自1970年代和1980年代的儿童的更大样本，他们已经达到 年龄在40-63岁之间。我们的项目有三个具体目标。首先，我们将提供最严格的评估， 儿童期经济资源与成年期健康结果之间的关系。更 准确地说，我们的创新将证明（a）收入中的潜在非线性和临界阈值- 健康关系;（B）成年人健康的哪些衡量标准最受儿童收入的影响;以及 (c)经济资源的哪些要素对成熟的成人健康最为关键。第二，我们将评估 儿童时期的相对收入还是绝对收入对成年后的健康最重要。三是 调查成人社会经济成就和成人健康行为作为中介途径的作用。 最后，我们将建立一个公共的代码基础设施，用于复制和鼓励更好的测量 在使用相同或其他数据集的研究中，儿童的经济资源。通过整合领先的 收入计量标准，并利用更高质量的儿童期前瞻性计量数据 收入和各种各样的老年人的健康结果，这个项目有可能使新的 突出贡献。我们的目标是提高对儿童经济与社会发展之间关系的理解。 健康和成熟的成年人。更一般地说，我们将有助于在社会科学的几个领域， 健康、健康老龄化和健康差距。通过做出这些贡献，我们将推动这些领域的发展。 已经对公共政策有价值的知识。具体来说，我们的研究可以为更有效地瞄准 干预措施-在儿童收入分配的哪些点，通过哪些调解途径- 改善成年人健康。我们的研究还可以指导健康从业者更可靠和预测 成年期特定健康问题的早期预警信号。

PROJECT SUMMARY Recent research provides novel evidence that childhood economic disadvantage undermines health among older adults. Despite valuable contributions, most US-based research on this provocative theme has relied on retrospective recollections of childhood resources from decades in the past. Even with prospective data, this literature largely uses measures of childhood economic resources that do not rise to leading international standards. We improve upon past research in critical ways by more fully incorporating leading international standards in income measurement into the study of health. We will use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a large, nationally representative study that prospectively measures childhood economic resources as well as a variety of health outcomes in mature adulthood. We capitalize on a pivotal strength of the PSID when merged with the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF): comprehensive and higher quality prospective measures of childhood income inclusive of taxes and transfers. We will strategically exploit the most recent waves of the PSID-CNEF to include a larger sample of children from the 1970s and 1980s who have reached ages 40-63 by 2017. Our project has three specific aims. First, we will provide the most rigorous assessment to date of the relationship between childhood economic resources and mature adult health outcomes. More precisely, our innovations will demonstrate (a) potential nonlinearities and critical thresholds in the income- health relationship; (b) which measures of mature adult health are most influenced by childhood income; and (c) which elements of economic resources are most crucial to mature adult health. Second, we will assess whether relative or absolute childhood income is most important to mature adult health. Third, we will investigate the role of adult socio-economic attainment and adult health behaviors as mediating pathways. Finally, we will build a public good infrastructure of code for replication and to encourage better measurement of childhood economic resources in studies using the same or other datasets. By incorporating leading standards in income measurement, and utilizing higher quality data on prospectively measured childhood income and a wide variety of health outcomes among older adults, this project has the potential to make novel and salient contributions. We aim to improve understanding of the relationship between childhood economic resources and mature adult health. More generally, we will contribute to several fields in the social science of health, healthy aging, and health disparities. By making these contributions, we will advance these fields’ already valuable knowledge for public policy. Specifically, our research can inform more effective targeting of interventions – at which points in the childhood income distribution and through which mediating pathways – to improve mature adult health. Our research can also guide health practitioners with more reliable and predictive early warning signals for specific health problems in mature adulthood.