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Cited by 150Intergenerational and Educational Inequality StudiesHealth disparities and outcomesSocial and Cultural Dynamics

Social Stratification and Health: Education's Benefit beyond Economic Status and Social Origins

Reynolds, John R., Ross, Catherine E.·1998·Social Problems
DOI 10.2307/3097245
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Abstract

Stratification research has established education's critical role in the intergenerational transmission of parental socioeconomic status to adult work and economic status. However, almost no research examines the intergenerational processes by which socioeconomic origins affect adult physical and psychological well-being. Furthermore, stratification theories disagree on whether education endows people with meaningful skills, or whether education merely represents a symbolic marker used to pass on socioeconomic advantage from one generation to the next. Using data from the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and Households and the 1995 Aging, Status, and the Sense of Control Survey, we compare the effects of social origins, education, work, and economicstatus on physical and psychological well-being. Education is one of the strongest predictors of both physical and psychological well-being in both surveys, and its effects are not spuriously due to socioeconomic origins. Education has positive effects on well-being beyond the access it provides to privileged positions in the economy and higher incomes. People from high and low statuses benefit from more years of education. Finally, effects of parental education, father's occupation, and childhood poverty on adult well-being are largely mediated by respondent's education and its consequences for work and economic resources. However, some aspects of social origins, especially the experience of poverty in childhood, continue to affect adult well-being even accounting for one's own socioeconomic status.

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Crossref · 10.2307/3097245

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  • A person's level of education has a far greater effect on health if his or her parents were poorly educated than if they were well-educated.

    “They also find that a person’s level of education has a far greater effect on health if his or her parents were poorly educated than if they were well-educated.”

    From Education improves public health and promotes health equity (2015) · cites this paper as [54]

  • Reynolds and Ross provide evidence that the direct effect of education on well-being is greater than the direct effect of social origins, and the total effect of social origins is mediated mostly by education.

    “In another study, Reynolds and Ross54 provide evidence that “the direct effect of education on well-being is greater than the direct effect of social origins, and the total effect of social origins is mediated mostly by education.”54(p226)”

    From Education improves public health and promotes health equity (2015) · cites this paper as [54]

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Authors
Reynolds, J. R., & Ross, C. E.
Affiliations
Florida State University (US)
ORCID
Venue
Social Problems
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
1998-05
Volume
45
Issue
2
Pages
221-247
ISSN
  • 0037-7791 (ISSN-L)
  • 1533-8533
DOI
10.2307/3097245
OpenAlex
W2083032409
Cited by
150
References
71
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 13
FWCI
14.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Social Problems (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Cultural Dynamics
Keywords
social stratification, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, intergenerational transmission, social background, child poverty, adult well-being, physical health, psychological well-being, employment status

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