Socioeconomic Status and Class in Studies of Fertility and Health in Developing Countries

Abstract

The concepts of socioeconomic status (SES) and class are pervasive in sociological studies, yet an examination of the sociological and social science literature suggests that there is a lack of consensus on their conceptual meaning and measurement. Our review focuses on the use of SES and class in a specific substantive field, studies of child health and fertility in developing countries. We provide a brief review of the theoretical literature on SES and class, contrasting unitary and component views. We then examine the use of SES and class in empirical studies of child health and fertility in developing countries and investigate the relationship between the conceptual and empirical literature, highlighting the inconsistencies we find. In addition, we discuss the variety of meanings and measures of SES that researchers use in these studies. Next, we address a series of methodological issues that arise from the review. Finally, we make recommendations for the treatment of SES and class in these and related areas.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity with Formative Measurement: A Mediator Perspective

“…Any scale refinement should be based on both empirical and theoretical information and not rely solely on empirical data. For formative measurement, indicator weights are dependent on specified structural models (Bollen &Davis, 2009), and the relative contribution of indicator weights is model dependent (Bollen et al, 2001;Hauser & Warren, 1997). Therefore, the choice should be based on "theoretical relevance" (Cenfetelli & Bassellier, 2009).…”

Political Economy, Capability Development, and Fundamental Cause: Integrating Perspectives on Child Health in Developing Countries

“…Thus, researchers must rely on proxies for living standards (Montgomery et al 2000). Asset-based measures of wealth like the one used here are widely used to indicate SES, and some researchers claim they are superior to income in developing country contexts (Bollen, Glanville, and Stecklov 2001). Mother's education is measured as a series of categorical variables including primary, secondary, and higher, with no education as the reference group.…”

“…Mother's education is measured as a series of categorical variables including primary, secondary, and higher, with no education as the reference group. Maternal education is the most frequently used measure of SES in studies of health in developing countries (Bollen, Glanville, and Stecklov 2001).…”

The Population Level Impacts of Differential Fertility Behavior of Parents of Children with Autism

“…In this way, we exploit the missing structure of the data, as missingness in terms of father's name or age may capture relevant aspects of a family's socioeconomic background and family structure. Parental education and socioeconomic status play known and important roles in fertility decisions (Bollen, Glanville, and Stecklov 2001;Skirbekk 2008), shaping both plans and opportunities. Moreover, these descriptors of parents are also associated with the risk of their children receiving an autism diagnosis (Basin and Schendel 2007;Durkin et al 2010;King and Bearman 2011;).…”