Do intersecting identities structure social contexts to influence life course health? The case of school peer economic disadvantage and obesity.

ABSTRACT: Scholarship linking social contextual measures to health outcomes has grown in recent decades, but the role of individuals' intersecting identities in structuring social contexts to influence health remains unclear. Building on an existing intersectionality framework, we conceptualize how this may occur through social relationships. Then, we apply this framework to analyze whether adolescent peer social contextual disadvantage influences life-course obesity heterogeneously by individual gender, race, and early-life income. We take a life course approach as adolescence is a sensitive period for both social development and adult obesity development. In our analysis, we use cohort data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and leverage quasi-experimental variation

SUBMITTER: Polos J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8631455 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature