TY - CHAP T1 - Socioeconomic Status and Health over the Life Course: Capital as a Unifying Concept T2 - Handbook of the Life Course Y1 - 2003 A1 - Frytak, Jennifer R. A1 - Harley, Carolyn R. A1 - Finch, Michael D. ED - Mortimer, Jeylan T ED - Shanahan, Michael J. KW - Demographics KW - Event History/Life Cycle KW - Health Conditions and Status KW - Net Worth and Assets AB - On average, individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES)—based on education, income, or occupation—have worse health than their higher SES counterparts (Adler, Boyce, Chesney, Folkman, & Syme, 1993; Antonovsky, 1967; Feinstein, 1993; Feldman, Makuc, Kleinman, & Cornoni-Huntley, 1989; House, Kessler, & Herzog, 1990; Kitagawa & Hauser, 1973; Marmot, Shipley, & Rose, 1984; Pappas, Queen, Hadden, & Fisher, 1993; Preston & Taubman, 1994; Townsend & Davidson, 1982). This relationship is best depicted as a gradient in health with a fairly linear trend in better health associated with increasing levels of SES, rather than a threshold effect. Furthermore, this relationship is stratified by age; lower SES individuals begin to experience health problems shortly after adolescence, while higher SES individuals experience little health decline until around retirement age (House et al, 1990, 1994). This life course patterning of SES and health is intriguing since it suggests substantial variation in the ability of each group to sustain good health over the life course. JF - Handbook of the Life Course T3 - Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research PB - Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers CY - New York N1 - ProCite field 6 : Chapter 28 in ProCite field 8 : eds. U4 - Life Cycle/Socioeconomic Status/Human Capital/Health ER -