Unequal returns: how race, gender, and precarious employment shape the relationship between educational attainment and depressive symptoms in older American adults.

OBJECTIVES: The 'Diminishing Returns Hypothesis' posits that Black and Hispanic Americans receive fewer health benefits from educational attainment than White Americans. In this longitudinal cohort study, we examine diminishing returns in the context of precarious employment (PE) and depression in older age.

METHOD: Data came from adult labor force participants in the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2022,  = 22,883) with depressive symptoms measured from the 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale. We used inverse-probability-weighted Generalized Estimating Equations to estimate the joint effect of high school (HS) education, race, and gender (non-Hispanic (NH) white men, NH-white women, Black and Hispanic men, and Black and Hispanic women), and PE on depressive symptoms.

RESULTS: Unlike NH-white men and women and Black and Hispanic men, Black and Hispanic women with HS education did not have lower depressive symptoms than NH-white men without HS education (β = 0.08, 95% CI:-0.10,0.27). As PE increased, the protective effect of HS education increased among NH-White men but not among other race and gender groups ( > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: HS education is related to lower levels of depressive symptoms, but these benefits vary by race, gender, and level of PE.