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Impact of Social and Economic Conditions on Women’s Health

This strand my research considers how women’s health and wellbeing is influenced by various social and economic conditions across the life course. It is crucial to examine fluctuations in exposures and outcomes across the life course when investigating gendered health disparities because the effects of cumulative stressors will vary based on the life course stage under study. As such, time is a crucial component for understanding how exposures influence women’s health. This area of my research has two specific goals:

  1. Assess how social and economic inequality shapes women’s healthcare experiences, particularly as it relates to reproductive health outcomes and;

  2.  Investigate how life course events, especially those related to reproduction and fertility, then go on to shape women’s health at midlife and beyond​

Related Research

The Long Arm of Pregnancy Loss? Whether Unexpected Pregnancy Loss Matters for Mental Health at Midlife

Under Review at Social Science & Medicine

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Abstract: Pregnancy loss—miscarriages and stillbirths—is negatively associated with mental health up to a year after the loss occurs, suggesting that pregnancy loss may be associated with long-lasting mental health outcomes. Yet, there are few longitudinal analyses assessing the association between pregnancy loss and women’s mental health later into the life course, particularly during midlife. Given the importance of stress and adversity for mental health trajectories across the life course, it is important to assess how pregnancy loss may affect long-term mental health. Using National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY79) data spanning across twenty-six years, we estimated a series of multilevel regression models with random coefficients (i.e., growth curve models) to capture the association between three pregnancy loss indicators (any pregnancy loss, total number of losses, and gestational age at the time of loss) and depressive symptom trajectories among 3,721 midlife women. Findings indicate that experiencing any pregnancy loss increases the risk of depressive symptoms into midlife. Further, multiple pregnancy losses and early gestational age at time of loss are both associated with increased depressive symptoms at midlife when compared to those with no losses. We contribute to growing scientific knowledge regarding how reproductive histories, including pregnancy loss, influence women’s health at midlife.

Sequencing of Births by Wantedness: Implications for Changes in Midlife Health among Aging NLSY79 Women
Gerontology, 2023

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Abstract: As life course frameworks highlight and gerontological studies confirm, the health implications of early birth timing (e.g., adolescent births) and unplanned births (e.g., unwanted or mistimed births) extend years after those births into mid- and later-life. Yet past research often overlooks the considerable diversity in sequencing and timing of unplanned births even within the same individual (e.g., having both wanted and unwanted births), which are likely fundamental for women's long-term health trajectories. We develop a holistic understanding of birth timing and wantedness to provide insight into when and how childbearing histories matter for aging women's health. We use Sequence Analysis (SA) with hierarchical cluster method and estimate regression models using the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79; N=3,231) to examine how timing and patterning of births by wantedness (e.g., mistimed, unwanted) are associated with changes in physical and mental health from ages 40 to 50. We identify seven clusters of childbearing sequences. Of those seven clusters, respondents with sequences characterized by wanted births in their 20s and 30s had the smallest declines in health in mid-life, whereas respondents with sequences with mainly unwanted births at any age or with mainly mistimed births beginning in adolescence had the greatest health declines. Adjusting for social and economic variables accounted for some, but not all, health differences across childbearing clusters. This project demonstrates the need for comprehensive life course perspectives on long-term health implications of birth wantedness and timing, recognizing diversity within and between individuals.

How Intergenerational Estrangement Matters for Maternal and Adult Children’s Health
Under Review at Journal of Health and Social Behavior

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Abstract: We advance work on family ties and health to test how estrangement in one key relationship – the mother-adult child tie – matters for both generations’ self-rated health and depressive symptoms. Regression models across 13 waves of NLSY79 and NLSY79-YA data compare health outcomes across 1) estranged, 2) always close, and 3) socially negative maternal-adult child relationships (N = 3,031 mothers; 6,717 children). Mothers with an estranged child have worse health than all other mothers (i.e., always close and socially negative). Adult children who have always close ties with mothers have the best health of all three groups, but there are no differences in health outcomes for estranged adult children compared to those with intact but socially negative ties with mothers. Family-level analyses incorporating siblings further nuance these findings. We discuss implications of this study for the growing area of research and theory on the health cost of socially negative and estranged ties.

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