Open AccessMen’s Income Trajectories and Physical and Mental Health at Midlife
Author(s) -
A. Frech,
Sarah Damaske
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
american journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.755
H-Index - 181
eISSN - 1537-5390
pISSN - 0002-9602
DOI - 10.1086/702775
Subject(s) - mental health , national longitudinal surveys , poverty , gerontology , physical health , demography , psychology , sample (material) , life course approach , multinomial logistic regression , demographic economics , medicine , economics , developmental psychology , sociology , psychiatry , economic growth , chemistry , chromatography , machine learning , computer science
Using time-varying, prospectively measured income in a nationally representative sample of Baby-Boomer men (the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - 1979 [NLSY79]), we identify eight group-based trajectories of income between ages 25-49 and use multinomial treatment models to describe the associations between group-based income trajectories and mental and physical health at midlife. We find remarkable rigidity in income trajectories: less than 25% of our sample experiences significant upward or downward mobility between the ages of 25 to 49 and most who move remain or move into poverty. Men's physical and mental health at age fifty is strongly associated with their income trajectories, and some upwardly mobile men achieve the same physical and mental health as the highest earning men after adjusting for selection. The worse physical and mental health of men on other income trajectories is largely attributable to their early life disadvantages, health behaviors, and cumulative work experiences.