The Impact of Childhood Adversity and Late-life Socioeconomic Resources on the Trajectory of Functional Impairment in Older Adults
Grounded upon the coupled effect of temporal adjustments stemming from the accumu-lation of risks due to early adversities and the fluidity of social strata,this study endeavors to explicate the mechanisms underpinning the genesis of health disparity within life courses.Methodologically,amalgamating data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study's social surveys,this in-vestigation juxtaposes the disability trajectories of distinct cohorts of elderly individuals characterized by"high inception with subsequent decline""low inception devoid of marked fluctuation""high incep-tion sans significant fluctuation"and"low inception followed by upward mobility".Findings from the"time-point-individual multilevel mixed-effects model"divulge,foremost,that while adverse early-life conditions elevate the onset of disability among China's elderly populace,the passage of time demon-strates a pronounced survival advantage for those who have weathered more adverse circumstances,manifesting slower disability progression.Secondly,elderly individuals subject to disadvantageous ear-ly-life conditions but who achieved upward social mobility in subsequent life stages,thus possessing augmented socioeconomic resources,exhibit superior initial levels of physiological functionality and de-celerated subsequent rates of disability.These conclusions underscore the non-linearity of an individual's life trajectory,emphasizing the salience of pivotal experiences at various temporal junctures,life-al-tering transitions,and social mobility in shaping an individual's health trajectory.Such findings authen-ticate the"social relativity"conjecture of the formation pathway of health inequality while aligning with the foundational tenets of temporality,sequencing,agency,and reversibility in life course theory.
early-life adversitysocioeconomic resourcestrajectory of functional decline
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