Origins and Destinations, but How Much and When? Educational Disparities in Smoking and Drinking Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Matthew A. Andersson (), Vida Maralani and Renae Wilkinson
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Matthew A. Andersson: Baylor University
Vida Maralani: Cornell University
Renae Wilkinson: Harvard University

Population Research and Policy Review, 2022, vol. 41, issue 2, No 7, 558 pages

Abstract: Abstract Educational inequalities in health behaviors change dynamically across the life course. Yet, how parental and personal education interactively shape age-specific behavioral inequalities across the transition to adulthood has yet to be understood. Drawing on national Add Health data (N = 12,605; 6,675 women and 5,930 men), we analyze age- and gender-specific trajectories of current smoking and binge drinking from adolescence to young adulthood. In line with previous work, we find that parental education associates with smoking and drinking disparities even after respondents’ own education is completed. Reciprocally, we also find that disparities by eventual educational attainment appear early. During the college years, higher parental education predicts higher—not lower—rates of binge drinking. We find that attaining higher education “against the odds” of an educationally disadvantaged family background circumscribes the lowest rates of smoking and drinking for men and women alike, and especially during the college years, while “falling from grace” by not attaining higher education at levels matching one’s parents predicts the highest levels of smoking and drinking for both genders during or after college. These results shed new light on the interactive socioeconomic processes that help to explain behavioral health gradients across adolescence and adulthood.

Keywords: Health; Health behavior; Socioeconomic status; Education; Transition to adulthood; Young adulthood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s11113-021-09659-2

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