Social and health-related correlates of intergenerational and intragenerational social mobility among Swedish men and women

• OBJECTIVE: To explore the pattern and determinants of inter- and intragenerational occupational mobility among Swedish men and women. STUDY DESIGN: A Swedish 14-year prospective longitudinal study (response rate 96.5%). METHODS: Detailed information on 546 men and 495 women regarding their occupation, health status, health-related behaviour, psychosocial environment at home and school, material recourses and ethnicity prior to mobility were available at 16, 21 and 30 years of age. Odds ratios and 99% confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression to determine social mobility. RESULTS: The results indicated that being popular at school predicted upward mobility, and being less popular at school predicted downward mobility. Additionally, material deprivation, economic deprivation, shorter height (women) and poor health behavioural factors predicted downward mobility. Among this cohort, being less popular at school was more common among subjects whose parents had low socio-economic status. Occupational mobility was not influenced by ethnic background. CONCLUSIONS: Apart from height (women), health status was not associated with mobility for men or women either inter- or intragenerationally. Unfavourable school environment was a consistent predictor of mobility for both genders. The results indicate that schools should be used as a setting for interventions aimed at reducing socio-economic health inequities. Targeted school interventions that are designed to assist higher educational attainment of socio-economically disadvantaged youth would help to break the social chain of risk experienced during this time, and thereby alter their life course in ways that would reduce subsequent social inequities in health and well-being.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Adolescent

Adult

Age Factors

Body Height

*Career Mobility

Female

Health Behavior

*Health Status

Humans

Interpersonal Relations

Male

Occupations

Odds Ratio

Prospective Studies

*Social Class

Sweden/epidemiology

Young Adult

Inter-generational mobility

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)