Angela M. O'Rand

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE LINK BETWEEN CHILDHOOD SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND HEART ATTACK RISK IN ADULTHOOD

A growing body of evidence shows that childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is predictive of disease risk in later life, with those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to experience poor adult-health outcomes. Most of these studies, however, are based on middle-aged male populations and pay insufficient attention to the pathways between childhood risks and specific adult disorders. This article examines gender differences in the link between childhood SES and heart attack risk trajectories and the mechanisms by which early environments affect future disease risk. By using methods that model both latent and path-specific influences, we identify heterogeneity in early life conditions and human, social, and health capital in adulthood that contribute to diverse heart attack risk trajectories between and among men and women as they age into their 60s and 70s. We find that key risk factors for heart attack operate differently for men and women. For men, childhood SES does not differentiate those at low, increasing, and high risk for heart attack. In contrast, women who grew up without a father and/or under adverse economic conditions are the most likely to experience elevated risk for heart attack, even after we adjust for the unequal distribution of working and living conditions, social relationships, access to health care, and adult lifestyle behaviors that influence health outcomes.

Economic Independence, Economic Status, and Empty Nest in Midlife Marital Disruption.

We examine the risk of separation or divorce later in the marital career from a family development perspective. With data from the [U.S.] National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women we use a hazards framework to estimate the effects of womens economic independence couples economic status and family life course factors on the risk of middle-age separation or divorce. Several dimensions of economic independence and economic status influence the risk of midlife marital disruption. Moreover the transition to empty nest influences the risk of marital disruption but the effect of empty nest depends on the duration of the marriage. This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 1994 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. (EXCERPT)

Delayed Career Entry, Industrial Pension Structure, and Early Retirement in a Cohort of Unmarried Women

The effects of early family and work patterns and industrial pension structures on the timing of retirement among unmarried women are examined within a life course perspective. The retirement process is viewed in a longitudinal framework with similar combinations of factors influencing successive stages of final withdrawal from work. Logistic regression techniques are applied to data from a panel of unmarried women workers of retirement age to predict early versus late retirement over a five-year period. Having children and delayed career entry along with late life family, pension, and health status affect retirement schedules.

The hidden payroll: Employee benefits and the structure of workplace inequality

Employee benefits contribute to the stratification of the labor force into occupational markets. Employee benefits and earnings form “compensation packages” available in different combinations and at different levels to occupations located in different labor markets. In this study I have merged and aggregated data from the Current Population Survey Pension Suppolement in 1979 at the detailed occupation level with data from the Fourth Edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles to examine the relative importance of workforce characteristics, occupational content, and labor market context in the provision of selected employee benefits both separately and in combinations with earnings. The analyses reveal that fringe benefits are structurally-determined factors that represent a dimension of the reward structure of occupations different from earnings, but they combine with earnings to stratify the workplace into occupational markets.

Gender Differences in Employment after Spouse's Retirement

A central characteristic of the family retirement transition is its prolonged nature, beginning with the first spouses retirement and ending with the second spouses retirement or the first spouses return to work. In this article, differences in this process are examined depending on which spouse retires first. Although existing literature implies that women will retire more rapidly following a spouses retirement, results show no overall difference in mens and womens exit or return rates. However, there are gender differences in particular subgroups of families. Couples in which the wife was employed during child rearing show smaller gender differences. In couples in which the wife was not employed during child rearing, women retire more slowly than men.

Women's and Men's Retirement Income Status Early Family Role Effects

The effects of work history and early family roles on prospective economic (income) status at retirement are examined using the Earnings Records and Longitudinal Retirement History Study of the Social Security Administration. Regression analyses show that early family roles have greater direct and indirect effects on womens preretirement economic status than on mens. These effects present themselves as costs to women in retirement dollars. Sex differences are especially evident when observing the intervening effects of assets (net worth) and estimated retirement incomes from private and government pensions.

Changing Demographics and New Pension Risks

This study used longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the hazards of pension saving associated with variations in household arrangements among two cohorts of older workers. Results from multivariate models predicting pension participation, plan type, and pension cash-out highlight that under the defined-contribution plans characteristic of the new pension environment, women continue to bear greater risks associated with family position and lower workplace earnings. Unmarried women were the most likely to be without any type of pension. High rates of divorce among recent cohorts coincide with the spread of individualized pensions and raise additional concerns about womens pension-related income security. Women are vulnerable to income and savings losses in response to marital dissolution, and findings provide evidence that these women are at greater risk of benefit loss due to pension cash-out. The results suggest that these risks may be even greater for younger cohorts of workers.

Family Life Cycle, Work Career Patterns, and Women's Wages at Midlife.

Social gerontologists generally agree that the status of the elderly in the US and in other industrial countries is quite low but their status is not uniformly high in nonindustrial societies. The status of the elderly tends to be high in agricultural societies because the elderly usually control property right; elderly status is lower in hunter-gatherer societies because resourses are usually open to all. The status of the elderly tends to be higher in societies with extended and stem families than in those with nuclear families although this relationship may be spurious due to the association of family types with economic systems. The authors test the hypothesis that the status of the elderly varies according to family type regardless of economic system. Specifically the authors test whether elderly status varies with type of economy; the presence or absence of inheritance customs; and patterns of postmarital residence especially in cases of patrilocal residence. Data on 122 cultures from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample of Murdock and White 1969 and the Human Relations Files are examined for prestige power and privilege for elderly males and females. Elderly status is significantly lower in exploitative than in agricultural economics. Elderly status also varies with family structure. For men and women status is highest in small extended families and lowest in large extended families. The elderly have higher status in societies that have inheritance customs. Their status is lowest in neolocal societies highest in patrilocal societies and intermediate in other unilocal societies. The effects of inheritance customs and small extended families are negligible. This study suggests that the importance of family structure is overated as a source of elderly status.

Contested milieux: Small firms, unionization, and the provision of protective structures

Three trends in the workplace point to the importance of considering work relations as well as governance structures for the development of protective benefits such as pensions. The increasing concentration of employment growth in smaller firms, the general decline of unionization, and the changing composition of the work force constitute the new exigencies of worker-employer contracts. The 1983 Current Population Survey Pension Supplement is used in conjunction with certification data from the National Labor Relations Board to examine the interaction between firm size and the influence, as opposed to the prevalence, of unionization in the provision of pensions. Unionization is found to be more influential in the provision of pensions for workers in small firms despite the established prevalence of unionization in larger firms. The implications of these trends for labor market theory are discussed.

Women at Middle Age: Developmental Transitions

The shapes of womens lives have changed over the twentieth century as a result of declining fertility, extended longevity, new life-styles in marriage and family formation, and increased attachment to the labor force. Midlife role transitions for women are diverse and dependent upon earlier life events related to marriage, child bearing, and work. Trends such as the postponement of marriage and child bearing, divorce and separation, and early career entry have changed the traditional family life cycle. Low fertility among women with patterns of early childbirth has led to an extended empty nest period and to increased labor participation at midlife. All these trends point to the continuities and discontinuities in individual womens lives and in the experiences of different age cohorts of women over time. The future prospects for todays middle-aged women are viewed in terms of both their predictable and variable features.