Economic Conditions at Birth, Birth Weight, Ability, and the Causal Path to Cardiovascular Mortality

We analyze interaction effects of birth weight and the business cycle at birth on individual cardiovascular (CV) mortality later in life. In addition, we examine to what extent these long-run effects run by way of cognitive ability and education and to what extent those mitigate the long-run effects. We use individual records of Swedish birth cohorts from 19151929 covering birth weight, family characteristics, school grades, sibling identifiers, and outcomes later in life including the death cause. The birth weight distribution does not vary over the business cycle. The association between birth weight (across the full range) and CV mortality rate later in life is significantly stronger if the individual is born in a recession. This is not explained by differential fertility by social class over the cycle. Ability itself, as measured at age 10, varies with birth weight and the cycle at birth. But the long-run effects of early-life conditions appear to mostly reflect direct biological mechanisms. We do not find evidence of indirect pathways through ability or education, and the long-run effects are not mitigated by education

Pathways from Childhood Economic Conditions to Adult Mortality in a 1953 Stockholm Cohort: The Intermediate Role of Personal Attributes and Socioeconomic Career

Although both childhood and adult economic conditions have been found to be associated with mortality, independently or in combination with each other, less is known about the role of intermediate factors between these two life stages. This study explores the pathways between childhood economic conditions and adult mortality by taking personal attributes as well as adult socioeconomic career into consideration. Further, we investigate the role of intergenerational income mobility for adult mortality. We used data from a prospective cohort study of individuals that were born in 1953 and residing in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1963 who were followed for mortality between 2002 and 2021 (n = 11,325). We fit Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association of parental income, cognitive ability, social skills, educational attainment, occupational status, and adult income with mortality. The income mobility is operationalized as the interaction between parental and adult income. Our results show that the association between parental income and adult mortality is modest and largely operates through cognitive ability and adult educational attainment. However, our results do not provide support for there being an effect of intergenerational income mobility on adult mortality. In a Swedish cohort who grew up in a comparatively egalitarian society during the 1950s and 1960s, childhood economic conditions were found to play a distinct but relatively small role for later mortality

Psychosocial School Conditions and Mental Wellbeing Among Mid-adolescents: Findings From the 2017/18 Swedish HBSC Study

Objectives: To investigate mid-adolescent boys’ and girls’ experiences of school demands, teacher support, and classmate support, and explore the associations of these factors with mental wellbeing.Methods: Data were derived from the Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study of 2017/18, with information collected among 1,418 students in grade 9 (∼15–16 years). School demands, teacher support, and classmate support were measured by indices based on three items each. Mental wellbeing was measured by the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS). Linear regression analyses were performed.Results: Higher demands were associated with lower mental wellbeing. Conversely, mental wellbeing increased with greater teacher support and classmate support. Interactions between demands and the support variables showed that at the lowest levels of teacher and of classmate support, mental wellbeing was low and not associated with school demands. With increasing levels of teacher and classmate support, the overall level of mental wellbeing increased and revealed an inverse association between school demands and mental wellbeing.Conclusion: The study contributes with knowledge about how psychosocial conditions in school may hinder or enhance wellbeing among students

Born out of wedlock and never married--it breaks a man's heart

This study examines whether men who were born outside marriage in early twentieth century Sweden run a higher risk of dying from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in middle and old age compared to men who were born inside marriage. Analyses are based on the male half of the Uppsala Birth Cohort Study, Sweden, consisting of all 7411 boys who were born alive at the Uppsala Academic Hospital during the period 1915-1929. The statistical method used is Cox regression. The results demonstrated a statistically significant excess mortality among men born outside marriage, which could not be explained by either social class of origin or birth weight for gestational age. Instead, this elevated mortality was largely explained by the more than doubled mortality risk among those men born outside wedlock who never married in relation to the corresponding group of men born to married parents. Even when three indicators of adult socio-economic status were adjusted for, men who never married and were born outside marriage still ran a 93 per cent higher risk of dying from IHD than men who never married but were born inside marriage. This intervening effect of adult marital status was restricted to the category of never married men. Thus, although divorcees demonstrated an even higher mortality risk in relation to the married than did those who never married, this was equally true for men born inside and men born outside marriage. In the concluding section of the paper I argue that these findings should be understood in terms of the childhood social stigma that the illegitimate children experienced. This stigma may have resulted in an increased susceptibility, which in combination with the "failure" in adulthood to comply with the established norms of society regarding matrimony led to higher levels of IHD mortality in middle and old age.Illegitimacy Ischaemic heart disease Marital status Mortality Sweden

Birth order and mortality: a life-long follow-up of 14,200 boys and girls born in early 20th century Sweden

The present study examines the sex-specific patterns of mortality by birth order in four stages of the life-course, using Poisson and logistic regression analysis. The main question posed is whether there is any continuing social effect of birth order when (a) biological factors at birth, (b) other social factors at birth and (c) socio-economic circumstances in adulthood are adjusted for. The analyses are based on the Uppsala Birth Cohort Study consisting of all 14,192 boys and girls who were born alive at the Uppsala Academic Hospital in Sweden during the period 1915-29. The results showed that all-cause mortality differed according to birth order in all of the four studied age intervals when birth year, mother's age, birth weight, gestational age, diseases of mother, diseases of the infant, social class and mother's marital status at the time of childbirth were adjusted for. The general tendency was for laterborn siblings, particularly girls/women, to demonstrate a higher mortality risk than firstborn children. However, in the oldest age group (55-80 years) the previously significant association between birth order and male mortality became insignificant when adult socio-economic circumstances were controlled for. This indicates that the long-term influence of childhood birth order position on mortality is partly mediated by adult social class, education and income. The concluding section of the paper notes that laterborn children, and especially girls, were a disadvantaged group in early 20th century Sweden. Thus, for the subjects in the present study, the childhood social conditions linked to birth order position seem to have had consequences for these individuals' health and survival that extend over the whole life-course.Birth order Mortality Social class Birth weight Sweden

Status relations in school and their relevance for health in a life course perspective: Findings from the Aberdeen children of the 1950's cohort study

In the class room a hierarchical structure of social relations typically develops in which the child's position is a marker of the view of the others, i.e. the extent to which he or she is an accepted and valued member of the group. The status distribution in the school class is likely to correspond to differences in personal characteristics, including behaviours and competencies, and to generate a differential distribution of perceived expectations, treatment, resources and emotions. We argue that these phenomena constitute parts in a developmental process which, through mediators such as self-view and subsequent life choices, may affect adult health. The purpose of this paper is to study whether and how peer status is associated with self-reported health in mid-life. Data was derived from a cohort study of individuals born in Aberdeen, Scotland, between 1950 and 1956. We use information about childhood circumstances, including peer status nominations, collected in the early 1960s, and information about adult circumstances derived from a postal questionnaire carried out among more than 6000 individuals in 2001-2003. Multivariate analyses yielded a graded association between peer status and adult health problems in the form of limiting longstanding illness and less than good self-rated health. These associations could not be explained by socioeconomic circumstances or differences in individual behaviour and cognitive score in childhood. It was rather subsequent socioeconomic career that seemed to explain the association found among men. For women, a significant association remained, suggesting alternative pathways or mechanisms.Aberdeen Children of the 1950's study Peer status Middle childhood Adult health Life course Health inequality UK

Popular peers and firstborn siblings are better off

‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ is an idiom that ultimately is reflected in the reproduction of inequality patterns across generations. Representatives of the child’s own generation, such as siblings and peers, may however play a key role by either reinforcing or counteracting this reproduction. Based on a Stockholm cohort now approaching retirement, we explore whether the inheritance of parents’ misfortunes, here reflected through poverty, varies in strength depending on the cohort members’ position in the sibship or peer group.Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv</p

School effectiveness and student cheating : Do students’ grades and moral standards matter for this relationship?

Cheating is a more or less prominent feature of all educational contexts, but few studies have examined its association with aspects of school effectiveness theory. With recently collected data from upper-secondary school students and their teachers, this study aims to examine whether three aspects of school effectiveness—school leadership, teacher cooperation and consensus, and school ethos—are predictive of student’s self-reported cheating, while also taking student- and school-level sociodemographic characteristics as well as student grades and moral standards into consideration. The study is based on combined data from two surveys: one targeting students and the other targeting teachers. The data cover upper secondary schools in Stockholm and includes information from 4529 students and 1045 teachers in 46 schools. Due to the hierarchical data, multilevel modelling was applied, using two-level binary logistic regression analyses. Results show significant negative associations between all three aspects of school effectiveness and student cheating, indicating that these conditions are important to consider in the pursuit of a more ethical, legitimate and equitable education system. Our findings also indicate that the relationship between school effectiveness and student cheating is partly mediated by student grades and moral standards

Peer Victimization among Classmates—Associations with Students’ Internalizing Problems, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction

Bullying is a major problem in schools and a large number of studies have demonstrated that victims have a high excess risk of poor mental health. It may however also affect those who are not directly victimized by peers. The present study investigates whether peer victimization among classmates is linked to internalizing problems, self-esteem, and life satisfaction at the individual level, when the student’s own victimization has been taken into account. The data were derived from the first wave of the Swedish part of Youth in Europe Study (YES!), including information on 4319 students in grade 8 (14–15 years of age) distributed across 242 classes. Results from multilevel analyses show a significant association between classes with a high proportion of students being victimized and higher levels of internalizing problems, lower self-esteem, and lower life satisfaction at the student level. This association holds when the student’s own victimization has been taken into account. This suggests that peer victimization negatively affects those who are directly exposed, as well as their classmates. We conclude that efficient methods and interventions to reduce bullying in school are likely to benefit not only those who are victimized, but all students