Cumulative advantage processes as mechanisms of inequality in life course health
Abstract
While there is consistent evidence that inequality in economic resources follows a process of cumulative advantage, the application of this framework to another aspect of life course inequality, health, has not produced consensus. This analysis uses longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the over‐time relationship between health and socioeconomic status, considering how multiple dimensions of socioeconomic resources and economic history are related to health disparities as people age. The authors find cautious support for path‐ and duration‐dependent processes of cumulative advantage in health. Results suggest that in studies of mechanisms of inequality over time, the cumulative advantage process may appear to be bounded by age because of the disproportionate attrition and mortality of those with low socioeconomic status.
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LCP considers not only how disadvantage impacts health outcomes, but how cumulative advantage can play a role.
“Meanwhile, LCP consider not only how disadvantage impacts health outcomes, but how cumulative advantage can play a role (218).”
From A Biopsychosocial Overview of the Opioid Crisis: Considering Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Health (2019) · cites this paper as [218]
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- Authors
- Willson, A. E., Shuey, K. M., & Elder, Jr.
- Affiliations
- Western University (CA)
- ORCID
- Shuey, Kim M.
- Venue
- American Journal of Sociology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2007-05
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1886-1924
- ISSN
- 0002-9602 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5390
- OpenAlex
- W2080301258
- Cited by
- 541
- References
- 87
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 16.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Sociology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Health › Public Health and Social Inequalities
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Keywords
- Matthew effect, health disparities, life course, socioeconomic status, path dependence, duration dependence, attrition, mortality, Panel Study of Income Dynamics
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