Intragenerational Household Net Worth Mobility and Mental Health Outcomes in the United States

Grzegorz Bulczak

Social Science Quarterly, 2025, vol. 106, issue 4

Abstract: Objective Household finances are often studied in relation to various life outcomes, but there is a lack of research on any links between intragenerational net worth mobility and health. This research aims to disentangle the effects of household net worth on individuals’ health at two different time points, 8 years apart, and possible mobility effects arising from any changes in household finances between those two points in time. So far, these issues have not been sufficiently explored, and filling this gap will allow a better understanding of the effect of financial resources and financial mobility on the health of young adults. Methods This study uses data about 8583 individuals from the United States National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and Sobel's diagonal reference model (DRM), developed to study the influence of social mobility, taking into account origin and destination effects, to test if intragenerational net worth mobility, net of origin, and destination positions, is linked to the mental health of individuals. Results This study identifies linkages between household net worth and individuals’ mental health. The results are in line with theoretical expectations and past empirical studies showing that not only socioeconomic position but also social mobility shapes health outcomes. Even after accounting for debt and asset value explicitly, the influence of net worth position and mobility on mental health remains largely unaffected. The main findings suggest that individuals living in negative or break‐even net worth households experience poorer health. There are distinct patterns indicating that each of the three net worth categories is associated with substantial health differences. Conclusion This investigation offers valuable insight into the role of social determinants in shaping health disparities among individuals. The conducted analysis shows that household net worth is strongly associated with the mental health of adults. The results indicate that health‐related policies should be formulated and implemented not only on one measure of household finances and that the difference between household assets and debt is one of the best candidates in this category.

Date: 2025
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