Journal of Health and Social Behavior最新文献

This study employs multichannel sequence analysis of data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe to explore variations in the association between work-family life trajectories and women's mental health across European cohorts born between 1924 and 1965 within different policy contexts. It finds that trajectories characterized by prolonged employment and delayed familial commitments are generally associated with increased depressive symptoms. Notably, the strength of this association varies significantly across cohorts and is notably moderated by defamilization policies. These policies, which aim to reduce dependency on family for managing social risks, buffer mental health challenges in traditional family roles but are less effective for women in trajectories with delayed family formation. This investigation highlights the nuanced ways in which historical and cultural contexts alongside policy environments shape mental health outcomes at various life stages, offering valuable insights into our understanding of health disparities across the life course, with an emphasis on exposure to changing institutions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents experienced difficulties around employment and children's schooling, likely with detrimental mental health implications. We analyze National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data (N = 2,829) to estimate depressive symptom changes from 2019 to 2021 by paid work status and children's schooling modality, considering partnership status, gender, and race-ethnicity differences. We draw on cumulative disadvantage theory alongside strained advantage theory to test whether mental health declines were steeper for parents with more disadvantaged statuses or for parents with more advantaged statuses. Parents with work disruptions, without paid work, or with children in remote school experienced the greatest increases in depressive symptoms, with steepest increases among single parents without paid work and single parents with children in remote school (cumulative disadvantage), fathers without paid work (strained advantage), and White parents with remote school (strained advantage). We discuss the uneven impacts of the pandemic on mental health and implications for long-term health disparities.

Racial inequalities in breastfeeding have been a U.S. national concern, prompting health science research and public discourse. Social science research reveals structural causes, including racism in labor conditions, maternity care practices, and lactation support. Yet research shows that popular and health science discourses disproportionately focus on individual and community factors, blaming Black women and communities for unequal breastfeeding rates. This study examines how scientific reports are communicated to the public through a critical analysis of 104 U.S. news articles reporting research on racial disparities in breastfeeding. Findings show that articles acknowledge unequal treatment within maternity care but justify it by presenting Black patients as overburdening the maternity care systems they use due to low socioeconomic status, welfare dependency, poor family support, and poor health. Through these representations, articles co-construct racialized motherhood and maternity care systems in ways that hide manifestations of obstetric racism and combat social support for systemic change.

Scholars of social determinants of health have long been interested in how parent's and own education influence health. However, the differing effects of parent's and own education on health-that is, for what socioeconomic group education conveys health benefits-are relatively less studied. Using multilevel marginal structural models, we estimate the heterogeneous effects of parent's and own education over the life course on two health measures. Our analysis considers both parent's and respondent's pre-education covariates, such as childhood health and socioeconomic conditions. We find that the protective effects of college completion against negative health outcomes are remarkably similar regardless of parent's (measured by father's or mother's) education. Meanwhile, parent's education has a larger effect when the average educational level is low in the population. Our results also reveal distinct life course patterns between health measures. We conclude by discussing the implications of our study for understanding the education-health relationship.

The increased politicization of sexual and reproductive health has created barriers to medically necessary care. In absence of formal health care, social ties become critical sources of information and resources, yet the disclosure of stigmatized health needs carries significant risk. How do people navigate the risks and benefits of disclosure when seeking care for stigmatized needs? Drawing on original survey data (N = 153) and in-depth interviews (N = 55) with women who attempted a self-managed abortion, I first describe the distinct roles of weak and strong ties in women's health-seeking experiences. I then demonstrate how both partial disclosure and nondisclosure are critical tools for obtaining information, resources, and emotional support during periods of health-seeking. Findings advance understanding of disclosure as a continuum that can be strategically wielded by people with stigmatized needs to confront and evade stigma and surveillance from their networks, the state, and the formal health care system.

Observing an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and health reliably leads to the question, "What are the pathways involved?" Despite enormous investment in research on the characteristics, behaviors, and traits of people disadvantaged with respect to health inequalities, the issue remains unresolved. We turn our attention to actions of more advantaged groups by asking people to self-report their exposure to disrespect, discrimination, exclusion, and shaming (DDES) from people above them in the SES hierarchy. We developed measures of these phenomena and administered them to a cross-sectional U.S. national probability sample (N = 1,209). Consistent with the possibility that DDES represents a pathway linking SES and health, the SES→health coefficient dropped substantially when DDES variables were controlled: 112.9% for anxiety, 43.8% for self-reported health, and 49.4% for cardiovascular-related conditions. These results illustrate a need for a relational approach emphasizing the actions of more advantaged groups in shaping health inequities.