Abstract
Wealth plays a unique role in shaping later-life health risk, but the relationship between wealth and child health remains largely unexplored. Using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) (1994–2013), this study uses multilevel mixed-effects models and the parametric g-formula approach to both assess the relationship between household wealth and child body mass index (BMI) and identify the mechanisms linking wealth to child BMI. We find that household wealth is negatively associated with childhood BMI. In addition to finding a strong, direct association, we also find that household wealth indirectly patterns child BMI and obesity risk through household spending and family stress processes. These findings provide new insights into the links between wealth, child health, and early-life population health disparities.
- © 2021 Russell Sage Foundation. Boen, Courtney, Lisa A. Keister, and Nick Graetz. 2021. “Household Wealth and Child Body Mass Index: Patterns and Mechanisms.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7(3): 80–100. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2021.7.3.04. Direct correspondence to: Courtney Boen at cboen{at}upenn.edu, 232 McNeil Building, 3718 Locus Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States; Lisa A. Keister at lkeister{at}duke.edu, 268 Soc/Psych Bldg, Durham, NC 27708, United States; and Nick Graetz at ngraetz{at}sas.upenn.edu, 249–2 McNeil Building, 3718 Locus Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States.
Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.