Validation of a theoretically motivated approach to measuring childhood socioeconomic circumstances in the Health and Retirement Study

Abstract

Childhood socioeconomic status (cSES) is a powerful predictor of adult health, but its operationalization and measurement varies across studies. Using Health and Retirement Study data (HRS, which is nationally representative of community-residing United States adults aged 50+ years), we specified theoretically-motivated cSES measures, evaluated their reliability and validity, and compared their performance to other cSES indices. HRS respondent data (N = 31,169, interviewed 1992–2010) were used to construct a cSES index reflecting childhood social capital (cSC), childhood financial capital (cFC), and childhood human capital (cHC), using retrospective reports from when the respondent was <16 years (at least 34 years prior). We assessed internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) for the scales (cSC and cFC), and construct validity, and predictive validity for all measures. Validity was assessed with hypothesized correlates of cSES (educational attainment, measured adult height, self-reported childhood health, childhood learning problems, childhood drug and alcohol problems). We then compared the performance of our validated measures with other indices used in HRS in predicting self-rated health and number of depressive symptoms, measured in 2010. Internal consistency reliability was acceptable (cSC = 0.63, cFC = 0.61). Most measures were associated with hypothesized correlates (for example, the association between educational attainment and cSC was 0.01, p < 0.0001), with the exception that measured height was not associated with cFC (p = 0.19) and childhood drug and alcohol problems (p = 0.41), and childhood learning problems (p = 0.12) were not associated with cHC. Our measures explained slightly more variability in self-rated health (adjusted R2 = 0.07 vs. <0.06) and number of depressive symptoms (adjusted R2 > 0.05 vs. < 0.04) than alternative indices. Our cSES measures use latent variable models to handle item-missingness, thereby increasing the sample size available for analysis compared to complete case approaches (N = 15,345 vs. 8,248). Adopting this type of theoretically motivated operationalization of cSES may strengthen the quality of research on the effects of cSES on health outcomes.

Inequalities in elevated depressive symptoms in middle‐aged and older adults by rural childhood residence: The important role of education

“…Childhood financial capital is a scaled score from self‐reported measures of average financial resources and financial instability in childhood and was standardized to the analytic sample …”

“…Participants excluded from the analytic sample due to missing Childhood financial capital is a scaled score from self-reported measures of average financial resources and financial instability in childhood and was standardized to the analytic sample. 33 covariates were slightly older, had lower maternal educational attainment, had poorer childhood health, were mostly non-White, had higher representation of females and Southern birth, and had higher prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms (Table S1).…”

“…Demographic characteristics included age (in years at each evaluation, centered at 65), birth year (centered at 1924), race/ethnicity (categorized as Non‐Latino White, Non‐Latino Black, Non‐Latino Other, or Latino), birth region (based on self‐reported birth state, categorized as Southern or non‐Southern based on US Census region, which includes the following states: DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, NC, SC, GA FL, KT, TN, MS, AL, OK, TX, AR, and LA), maternal educational attainment (categorized as <8 years, ≥8 years, or “do not know”), paternal educational attainment (categorized as <8 years, ≥8 years, or “do not know”), self‐rated childhood health (categorized as “fair” or “poor” versus “excellent,” “very good,” or “good”), childhood financial capital (standard deviation units), and own educational attainment (in years, centered at 12). Childhood financial capital is a scaled score from self‐reported measures of average financial resources and financial instability in childhood and was standardized to the analytic sample . Southern US birth region has been shown to be associated with adult health, including stroke and cognitive outcomes and was thus included as a covariate.…”

“…Childhood financial capital is a scaled score from self-reported measures of average financial resources and financial instability in childhood and was standardized to the analytic sample. 33 Southern US birth region has been shown to be associated with adult health, including stroke and cognitive outcomes [34][35][36] and was thus included as a covariate.…”

Résumés d’ouvrages

“…Notwithstanding an abundance of literature describing models for a life-course approach and its value in health promotion, precise guidelines for its implementation and measurement could not be found and very few studies directly answered the synthesis question (35)(36)(37)(38). Of the 24 documents included in this report, some suggested validated measures as indicators for evaluating programmes focusing on a range of issues based on a life-course approach (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)49), and others indirectly indicated implementation of a life-course approach (18,30,34,(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55).…”