cognition; education; mediation analysis; g-formula; childhood socioeconomic conditions; English Longitudinal Study of Aging
Abstract :
[en] Objectives. Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is consistently associated with lower cognitive function in later life. This study aims to distinguish the contribution of specific aspects of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage for memory performance in mid to late adulthood, with consideration for direct and indirect effects through education and occupation.
Methods. Data were from adults aged 50 to 80 years who completed the life history module in the 2006/2007 wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (n = 4,553). The outcome, memory score, was based on word recall tests (range: 0–20 points). We used the g-formula to estimate direct and indirect effects of a composite variable for childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and its 4 individual components: lower-skilled occupation of the primary breadwinner, having few books in the home, overcrowding in the home, and lack of water and heating facilities in the home.
Results. Few books were the most consequential component of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage for later-life memory (total effect: −0.82 points for few books; 95% confidence interval [CI]: −1.04, −0.60), with roughly half being a direct effect. The total effect of a breadwinner in lower-skilled occupations was smaller but not significantly different from a few books (−0.67 points; 95% CI: −0.88, −0.46), while it was significantly smaller with overcrowding (−0.31 points; 95% CI: −0.56, −0.06). The latter 2 total effects were mostly mediated by education and occupation.
Discussion. A literate environment in the childhood home may have lasting direct effects on memory function in mid to later life, while parental occupation and overcrowding appear to influence memory primarily through educational and occupational pathways.
Research center :
- Integrative Research Unit: Social and Individual Development (INSIDE) > PEARL Institute for Research on Socio-Economic Inequality (IRSEI)
Disciplines :
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
FORD, Katherine Joy ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC)
Kobayashi, Lindsay C; University of Michigan School of Public Health > Department of Epidemiology
LEIST, Anja ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC)
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and pathways to memory performance in mid to late adulthood: What matters most?
Publication date :
May 2022
Journal title :
Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
ISSN :
1758-5368
Publisher :
Oxford University Press, Cary, United States - North Carolina
H2020 - 803239 - CRISP - Cognitive Aging: From Educational Opportunities to Individual Risk Profiles
FnR Project :
FNR10949242 - Migration, Inequalities And Labour Markets, 2015 (01/08/2016-31/01/2023) - Michel Beine
Funders :
FNR - Fonds National de la Recherche [LU] European Research Council H2020 National Institute on Aging at the United States National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01AG070953, R01AG069128, P30AG012846) CE - Commission Européenne [BE]
Aartsen, M. J., Cheval, B., Sieber, S., Van der Linden, B. W., Gabriel, R., Courvoisier, D. S., Guessous, I., Burton-Jeangros, C., Blane, D., Ihle, A., Kliegel, M., & Cullati, S. (2019). Advantaged socioeconomic conditions in childhood are associated with higher cognitive functioning but stronger cognitive decline in older age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(12), 5478-5486. doi:10.1073/pnas.1807679116
Abrahams, J. (2017). Honourable mobility or shameless entitlement? Habitus and graduate employment. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(5), 625-640. doi:10.1080/01425692.2015.1131145
Almeida-Meza, P., Steptoe, A., & Cadar, D. (2021). Markers of cognitive reserve and dementia incidence in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 218(5), 243-251. doi:10.1192/bjp.2020.54
Batty, G., Lawlor, D., Macintyre, S., Clark, H., & Leon, D. (2005). Accuracy of adults' recall of childhood social class: Findings from the Aberdeen children of the 1950s study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(10), 898. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.030932
Beck, A., Franz, C. E., Xian, H., Vuoksimaa, E., Tu, X., Reynolds, C. A., Panizzon, M. S., McKenzie, R. M., Lyons, M. J., Toomey, R., Jacobson, K. C., Hauger, R. L., Hatton, S. N., & Kremen, W. S. (2018). Mediators of the effect of childhood socioeconomic status on late midlife cognitive abilities: A four decade longitudinal study. Innovation in Aging, 2(1), 1-12. doi:10.1093/geroni/igy003
Ben-Shlomo, Y., & Kuh, D. (2002). A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: Conceptual models, empirical challenges and interdisciplinary perspectives. International Journal of Epidemiology, 31(2), 285-293. doi:10.1093/intjepid/31.2.285
Case, A., & Paxson, C. (2010). Causes and consequences of early-life health. Demography, 47(1), S65-S85. doi:10.1353/dem.2010.0007
Cermakova, P., Formanek, T., Kagstrom, A., & Winkler, P. (2018). Socioeconomic position in childhood and cognitive aging in Europe. Neurology, 91(17), e1602-e1610. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000006390
Daniel, R. M., De Stavola, B. L., & Cousens, S. N. (2011). Gformula: Estimating causal effects in the presence of time-varying confounding or mediation using the G-Computation formula. The Stata Journal, 11(4), 479-517. doi:10.1177/1536867X1201100401
Evans, G. W. (2004). The environment of childhood poverty. American Psychologist, 59(2), 77-92. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.59.2.77
Evans, M. D. R., Kelley, J., Sikora, J., & Treiman, D. J. (2010). Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 28(2), 171-197. doi:10.1016/j.rssm.2010.01.002
Evans, G. W., & Schamberg, M. A. (2009). Childhood poverty, chronic stress, and adult working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(16), 6545-6549. doi:10.1073/pnas.0811910106
Ford, K. J., & Leist, A. K. (2021). Returns to educational and occupational attainment in cognitive performance for middle-aged south korean men and women. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 7, 1-12. doi:10.1177/23337214211004366
Fort, M., Ichino, A., & Zanella, G. (2020). Cognitive and noncognitive costs of day care at age 0-2 for children in advantaged families. Journal of Political Economy, 128(1), 158-205. doi:10.1086/704075
Fransson, E., Knutsson, A., Westerholm, P., & Alfredsson, L. (2008). Indications of recall bias found in a retrospective study of physical activity and myocardial infarction. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 61(8), 840-847. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2007.09.004
Frisoni, G. B., Fratiglioni, L., Fastbom, J., Guo, Z., Viitanen, M., & Winblad, B. (2000). Mild cognitive impairment in the population and physical health: Data on 1,435 individuals aged 75 to 95. Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 55(6), M322-M328. doi:10.1093/gerona/55.6.M322
Gallagher, D., Savva, G. M., Kenny, R., & Lawlor, B. A. (2013). What predicts persistent depression in older adults across Europe? Utility of clinical and neuropsychological predictors from the SHARE study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 147(1), 192-197. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2012.10.037
Galobardes, B., Shaw, M., Lawlor, D. A., & Lynch, J. W. (2006a). Indicators of socioeconomic position (part 1). Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60(1), 7-12. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.023531
Galobardes, B., Shaw, M., Lawlor, D. A., & Lynch, J. W. (2006b). Indicators of socioeconomic position (part 2). Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 60(2), 95-101. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.028092
Goldthorpe, J. H., & Payne, C. (1986). Trends in Intergenerational Class Mobility in England and Wales, 1972-1983. Sociology, 20(1), 1-24. doi:10.1177/0038038586020001003
Greenfield, E. A., & Moorman, S. M. (2019). Childhood Socioeconomic status and later life cognition: Evidence from the Wisconsin longitudinal study. Journal of Aging and Health, 31(9), 1589-1615. doi:10.1177/0898264318783489
Hale, J. M. (2017). Cognitive disparities: The impact of the great depression and cumulative inequality on later-life cognitive function. Demography, 54(6), 2125-2158. doi:10.1007/s13524-017-0629-4
Hedden, T., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2004). Insights into the ageing mind: A view from cognitive neuroscience. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 5(2), 87-96. doi:10.1038/nrn1323
Howell, R., Breivik, E., & Wilcox, J. (2007). Reconsidering formative measurement. Psychological Methods, 12, 205-218. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.12.2.205
ILOSTAT. (n.d.). International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Retrieved June 7, 2021, from https://ilostat.ilo.org/resources/concepts-and-definitions/classification-occupation/
International Labour Office. (2012). Major group 0-armed forces occupations. In International standard classification of occupations: ISCO-08 (Vol. 1, p. 357). International Labour Office. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/-dgreports/-dcomm/-publ/documents/publication/wcms_172572.pdf#374
Jensen, S. K. G., Berens, A. E., & Nelson, C. A. (2017). Effects of poverty on interacting biological systems underlying child development. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, 1(3), 225-239. doi:10.1016/S2352-4642(17)30024-X
Jivraj, S., Goodman, A., Ploubidis, G. B., & de Oliveira, C. (2020). Testing comparability between retrospective life history data and prospective birth cohort study data. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 75(1), 207-217. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbx042
Kesternich, I., Siflinger, B., Smith, J. P., & Winter, J. K. (2014). The effects of world war ii on economic and health outcomes across Europe. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(1), 103-118. doi:10.1162/REST_a_00353
Kremen, W. S., Beck, A., Elman, J. A., Gustavson, D. E., Reynolds, C. A., Tu, X. M., Sanderson-Cimino, M. E., Panizzon, M. S., Vuoksimaa, E., Toomey, R., Fennema-Notestine, C., Hagler, D. J., Fang, B., Dale, A. M., Lyons, M. J., & Franz, C. E. (2019). Influence of young adult cognitive ability and additional education on later-life cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(6), 2021-2026. doi:10.1073/pnas.1811537116
Krieger, N. (2005). Embodiment: A conceptual glossary for epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(5), 350-355. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.024562
Lang, I. A., Llewellyn, D. J., Langa, K. M., Wallace, R. B., Huppert, F. A., & Melzer, D. (2008). Neighborhood deprivation, individual socioeconomic status, and cognitive function in older people: Analyses from the english longitudinal study of ageing. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 56(2), 191-198. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01557.x
Leist, A. K., Bar-Haim, E., & Chauvel, L. (2021). Inequality of educational opportunity at time of schooling predicts cognitive functioning in later adulthood. SSM Population Health, 15, 100837. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100837
Lövdén, M., Bäckman, L., Lindenberger, U., Schaefer, S., & Schmiedek, F. (2010). A theoretical framework for the study of adult cognitive plasticity. Psychological Bulletin, 136(4), 659-676. doi:10.1037/a0020080
Lövdén, M., Fratiglioni, L., Glymour, M. M., Lindenberger, U., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2020). Education and cognitive functioning across the life span. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 21(1), 6-41. doi:10.1177/1529100620920576
Lyu, J., & Burr, J. A. (2016). Socioeconomic status across the life course and cognitive function among older adults: An examination of the latency, pathways, and accumulation hypotheses. Journal of Aging and Health, 28(1), 40-67. doi:10.1177/0898264315585504
Mansournia, M. A., Etminan, M., Danaei, G., Kaufman, J., & Collins, G. (2017). Handling time varying confounding in observational research. BMJ, 359, 1-6. doi:10.1136/bmj.j4587
Martikainen, P., Laaksonen, M., Piha, K., & Lallukka, T. (2007). Does survey non-response bias the association between occupational social class and health? Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 35(2), 212-215. doi:10.1080/14034940600996563
McElroy, E., Richards, M., Fitzsimons, E., Conti, G., Ploubidis, G. B., Sullivan, A., & Moulton, V. (2021). Influence of childhood socioeconomic position and ability on mid-life cognitive function: Evidence from three British birth cohorts. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 75(7), 643-650. doi:10.1136/jech-2020-215637
McGrath, S., Young, J. G., & Hernán, M. A. (2022). Revisiting the g-null Paradox. Epidemiology, 33(1), 114-120. doi:10.1097/EDE.0000000000001431
Oi, K., & Haas, S. (2019). Cardiometabolic risk and cognitive decline: The role of socioeconomic status in childhood and adulthood. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 60(3), 326-343. doi:10.1177/0022146519867924
O'Shea, B. Q., Demakakos, P., Cadar, D., & Kobayashi, L. C. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and rate of memory decline from mid to later life: Evidence from the english longitudinal study of ageing. American Journal of Epidemiology, 190(7), 1294-1305. doi:10.1093/aje/kwab019
Paterniti, S., Verdier-Taillefer, M. H., Dufouil, C., & Alpérovitch, A. (2002). Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline in elderly people: Longitudinal study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 181(5), 406-410. doi:10.1192/bjp.181.5.406
Perkins, J. M., Subramanian, S. V., Davey Smith, G., & Özaltin, E. (2016). Adult height, nutrition, and population health. Nutrition Reviews, 74(3), 149-165. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuv105
Pimlott-Wilson, H. (2011). The role of familial habitus in shaping children's views of their future employment. Children's Geographies, 9(1), 111-118. doi:10.1080/14733285.2011.540443
Rivera, L. A. (2011). Ivies, extracurriculars, and exclusion: Elite employers' use of educational credentials. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 29(1), 71-90. doi:10.1016/j.rssm.2010.12.001
Ruzek, E., Burchinal, M., Farkas, G., & Duncan, G. J. (2014). The quality of toddler child care and cognitive skills at 24 months: Propensity score analysis results from the ECLS-B. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(1), 12-21. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2013.09.002
Sieben, S., & Lechner, C. M. (2019). Measuring cultural capital through the number of books in the household. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences, 1(1), 1-6. doi:10.1186/s42409-018-0006-0
Steptoe, A., Breeze, E., Banks, J., & Nazroo, J. (2013). Cohort profile: The english longitudinal study of ageing. International Journal of Epidemiology, 42(6), 1640-1648. doi:10.1093/ije/dys168
Stern, Y. (2012). Cognitive reserve in ageing and Alzheimer's disease. The Lancet Neurology, 11(11), 1006-1012. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70191-6
Stewart, J. (2005). A review of UK housing policy: Ideology and public health. Public Health, 119(6), 525-534. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2004.07.006
VanderWeele, T. J. (2016). Mediation analysis: A practitioner's guide. Annual Review of Public Health, 37(1), 17-32. doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032315-021402
VanderWeele, T. J., & Vansteelandt, S. (2014). Mediation analysis with multiple mediators. Epidemiologic Methods, 2(1), 95-115. doi:10.1515/em-2012-0010
Wahrendorf, M., & Blane, D. (2015). Does labour market disadvantage help to explain why childhood circumstances are related to quality of life at older ages? Results from SHARE. Aging and Mental Health, 19(7), 584-594. doi:10.1080/13607863.2014.938604
Wang, A., & Arah, O. A. (2015). G-computation demonstration in causal mediation analysis. European Journal of Epidemiology, 30(10), 1119-1127. doi:10.1007/s10654-015-0100-z
van de Werfhorst, H. G. (2021). Sorting or mixing? Multi-track and single-track schools and social inequalities in a differentiated educational system. British Educational Research Journal, 47(5), 1209-1236. doi:10.1002/berj.3722
Wolfova, K., Csajbok, Z., Kagstrom, A., Kåreholt, I., & Cermakova, P. (2021). Role of sex in the association between childhood socioeconomic position and cognitive ageing in later life. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 4647. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-84022-1
