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Reproduction of inequalities through linked lives

Information

Period

2017-2022/2023

Funder

Forte

Amount

€ 2 130 000

Project members
  • Susanne Alm | Stockholm University
  • Ylva B Almquist | Stockholm University (Co-PI)
  • Lauren Bishop | University of Helsinki
  • Alessandra Grotta | Stockholm University
  • Klara Gurzo | Stockholm University
  • Robin Högnäs | Stockholm University
  • Josephine Jackisch | University of Fribourg
  • Anders Ledberg | Stockholm University
  • Can Liu | Stockholm University
  • Charlotta Magnusson | Stockholm University
  • Alexander Miething | Stockholm University
  • Bitte Modin | Stockholm University (PI)
  • Kristiina Rajaleid | Stockholm University
  • Tanishta Rajesh | Stockholm University
  • Fredrik Sivertsson | Stockholm University
  • Sten-Åke Stenberg | Stockholm University
  • Anna Thalén | Stockholm University
  • Denny Vågerö | Stockholm University

Description

From the day a child is born, she is embedded in a network of social relationships that shape how she thinks, acts, and feels. Some children get off to a good start by being born to parents with higher positions in society who can help them navigate through life, achieving higher positions for themselves. Others are born to less fortunate parents, whose lack of resources may set them on a less privileged journey. Yet, parents are not the only source of influence during childhood. There are socialization agents also within the child’s generation, such as siblings and friends. Although siblings share genes and their home environment, they often adopt different roles within the family during upbringing which makes them dissimilar, while friends, who also spend a lot of time together, have different parents but are generally selected based on similarity. The simultaneous study of parallel developmental paths among siblings and friends and their role for the reproduction of inequality has, to our knowledge, never been embarked upon before. The aim of this research programme is to examine how social, economic, and health inequalities in the parental generation re-emerges in the next-coming generations of children and grandchildren, and the extent to which siblings and friends may explain or counteract these processes. Drawing upon recent advances in the solicitation of statistical models for life-course data, this programme outlines a unique empirical framework based on a Swedish longitudinal cohort study of 14,294 individuals born in 1953 as well as their parents, siblings, friends, and children.

Key findings

Advances in statistical modelling make it possible to capture intra- and intergenerational processes better than ever before

Childhood adversity heavily impacts on social, economic, and health-related outcomes across the adult life span

Sibship and peer group characteristics matter for life-course development

Inequalities are consistently reproduced across generations, as indicated through intergenerational correlations of (dis)advantage

Experiences related to siblings and peers can modify the intergenerational reproduction of inequality

Publications

  1. Alaie, I., Låftman, S. B., Jonsson, U., & Bohman, H. (2020). Parent–youth conflict as a predictor of depression in adulthood: a 15-year follow-up of a community-based cohort. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 527-536.
  2. Alm, S. (2020). Sibling configuration and the right to fail–parental and children’s own scholastic aspirations in different types of families. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25(1), 154-171.
  3. Alm, S., Brolin Låftman, S., & Bohman, H. (2019). Poor family relationships in adolescence and the risk of premature death: Findings from the Stockholm birth cohort study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(10), 1690.
  4. Alm, S., Låftman, S. B., & Bohman, H. (2021). Poor family relationships in adolescence as a risk factor of in-patient somatic care across the life course: Findings from a 1953 cohort. SSM-Population Health, 14, 100807.
  5. Alm, S., Låftman, S. B., Sivertsson, F., & Bohman, H. (2020). Poor family relationships in adolescence as a risk factor of in-patient psychiatric care across the life course: a prospective cohort study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 48(7), 726-732.
  6. Almquist, Y. B. (2016). Childhood origins and adult destinations: The impact of childhood living conditions on coexisting disadvantages in adulthood. International Journal of Social Welfare, 25(2), 176-186.
  7. Almquist, Y. B., Bishop, L., Gustafsson, N. K., & Berg, L. (2020). Intergenerational transmission of alcohol misuse: mediation and interaction by school performance in a Swedish birth cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health, 74(7), 598-604.
  8. Almquist, Y. B., & Brännström, L. (2018). Childhood adversity and trajectories of disadvantage through adulthood: findings from the Stockholm birth cohort study. Social Indicators Research, 136, 225-245.
  9. Almquist, Y. B., & Brännström, L. (2019). Do trajectories of economic, work-and health-related disadvantages explain child welfare clients’ increased mortality risk? A prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health, 19, 1-8.
  10. Almquist, Y. B., Högnäs, R. S., & Modin, B. (2017). Only the lonely? All-cause mortality among children without siblings and children without friends: Ylva B Almquist. The European Journal of Public Health, 27(suppl_3), ckx187-308.
  11. Almquist, Y. B., Jackisch, J., Forsman, H., Gauffin, K., Vinnerljung, B., Hjern, A., & Brännström, L. (2018). A decade lost: does educational success mitigate the increased risks of premature death among children with experience of out-of-home care?. J Epidemiol Community Health, 72(11), 997-1002.
  12. Almquist, Y. B., Landstedt, E., Jackisch, J., Rajaleid, K., Westerlund, H., & Hammarström, A. (2017). Growing through asphalt: What counteracts the long-term negative health impact of youth adversity? The European Journal of Public Health, 27(suppl_3), ckx187-120.
  13. Almquist, Y. B., Landstedt, E., Jackisch, J., Rajaleid, K., Westerlund, H., & Hammarström, A. (2018). Prevailing over adversity: factors counteracting the long-term negative health influences of social and material disadvantages in youth. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9), 1842.
  14. Almquist, Y. B., & Modin, B. (2017). Popular peers and firstborn siblings are better off. Sociologisk forskning, 313-317.
  15. Almquist, Y. B., Grotta, A., Vågerö, D., Stenberg, S. Å., & Modin, B. (2020). Cohort profile update: the Stockholm birth cohort study (SBC). International Journal of Epidemiology, 49(2), 367-367e.
  16. Almquist, Y. B., Rojas, Y., Vinnerljung, B., & Brännström, L. (2020). Association of child placement in out-of-home care with trajectories of hospitalization because of suicide attempts from early to late adulthood. JAMA Network Open, 3(6), e206639-e206639.
  17. Almquist, Y. B., Östberg, V., & Modin, B. (2023). Is there a peer status gradient in mortality? Findings from a Swedish cohort born in 1953 and followed to age 67. European Journal of Public Health, 33(2), 184-189.
  18. Batty, G. D., Kivimaki, M., Almquist, Y., Eriksson, J., Gissler, M., Gnanamanickam, E., … & Frank, P. (2024). Cardiovascular Disease Events in Adults with a History of State Care in Childhood: Pooling of Unpublished Results from 9 Cohort Studies. medRxiv, 2024-01.
  19. Bishop, L. (2022). Under the influence: Substance misuse from the perspective of linked lives (Doctoral dissertation, Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University).
  20. Bishop, L., & Almquist, Y. B. (2021). Friends’ childhood adversity and long‐term implications for substance misuse: a prospective Swedish cohort study. Addiction, 116(3), 632-640.
  21. Bishop, L., Almquist, Y. B., Pitkänen, J., & Martikainen, P. (2023). Offspring hospitalization for substance use and changes in parental mental health: A Finnish register-based study. Advances in Life Course Research, 57, 100561.
  22. Bishop, L., & Barclay, K. (2022). Birth order and health events attributable to alcohol and narcotics in midlife: A 25-year follow-up of a national Swedish birth cohort and their siblings. SSM-Population Health, 19, 101219.
  23. Brännström, L., Andershed, A. K., Vinnerljung, B., Hjern, A., & Almquist, Y. B. (2023). Gender-specific trajectories of offending from adolescence until age 40 among individuals with experience of out-of-home care: A national cohort study. Developmental Child Welfare, 25161032231217265.
  24. Brännström, L., Forsman, H., Vinnerljung, B., & Almquist, Y. B. (2020). Inequalities in educational outcomes in individuals with childhood experience of out-of-home care: What are driving the differences?. PLOS ONE, 15(4), e0232061.
  25. Brännström, L., Forsman, H., Vinnerljung, B., & Almquist, Y. B. (2017). The truly disadvantaged? Midlife outcome dynamics of individuals with experiences of out-of-home care. Child Abuse & Neglect, 67, 408-418.
  26. Brännström, L., & Stenberg, S. Å. (2021). Primary and Secondary Effects on Long‐Term Educational Outcomes of Individuals with Experience of Child Welfare Interventions. Child Abuse Review, 30(1), 48-61.
  27. Brännström, L., Vinnerljung, B., & Almquist, Y. B. (2022). Intergenerational transmission of placement in out-of-home care: Mediation and interaction by educational attainment. Child Abuse & Neglect, 123, 105436.
  28. Brännström, L., Vinnerljung, B., Forsman, H., & Almquist, Y. B. (2017). Children placed in out-of-home care as midlife adults: are they still disadvantaged or have they caught up with their peers?. Child Maltreatment, 22(3), 205-214.
  29. Carlsson, C., & Sivertsson, F. (2021). Age, gender, and crime in a Stockholm birth cohort to age 64. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 7(3), 359-384.
  30. Fors, S., Torssander, J., & Almquist, Y. B. (2018). Is childhood intelligence associated with coexisting disadvantages in adulthood? Evidence from a Swedish cohort study. Advances in Life Course Research, 38, 12-21.
  31. Forsman, H., & Jackisch, J. (2022). Cumulative childhood adversity and long-term educational outcomes in individuals with out-of-home care experience: do multiples matter for a population defined by adversity?. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(5), 2495-2514.
  32. Gao, M., Brännström, L., & Almquist, Y. B. (2017). Exposure to out-of-home care in childhood and adult all-cause mortality: a cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(3), 1010-1017.
  33. Gauffin, K., Jackisch, J., & Almquist, Y. B. (2021). Rocks, Dandelions or Steel Springs: Understanding Resilience from a Public Health Perspective. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(15), 8189.
  34. Gurzo, K., Modin, B., Martikainen, P., & Östergren, O. (2022). Pathways from childhood economic conditions to adult mortality in a 1953 Stockholm cohort: the intermediate role of personal attributes and socioeconomic career. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(12), 7279.
  35. Gurzo, K., Östergren, O., Martikainen, P., & Modin, B. (2023). The impact of privileged classroom friends on adult income and income mobility: A study of a Swedish cohort born in 1953. Social Forces, soad079.
  36. Hiyoshi, A., Berg, L., Grotta, A., Almquist, Y., & Rostila, M. (2020). Childhood bereavement and adult mortality: A 65-year follow-up of the Stockholm birth cohort. European Journal of Public Health, 30(Supplement_5), ckaa165-051.
  37. Hiyoshi, A., Berg, L., Grotta, A., Almquist, Y., & Rostila, M. (2021). Parental death in childhood and pathways to increased mortality across the life course in Stockholm, Sweden: A cohort study. PLoS Medicine, 18(3), e1003549.
  38. Hodgins, S., Sivertsson, F., Beckley, A., Luigi, M., & Carlsson, C. (2024). The burden for clinical services of persons with an intellectual disability or mental disorder convicted of criminal offences: A birth cohort study of 14,605 persons followed to age 64. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry.
  39. Högnäs, R. S., Almquist, Y. B., & Modin, B. (2020). Adolescent social isolation and premature mortality in a Swedish birth cohort. Journal of Population Research, 37, 1-23.
  40. Högnäs, R. S., & Grotta, A. (2019). The intergenerational transmission of early childbearing: examining direct and indirect associations in a Swedish Birth Cohort. Behavioral Sciences, 9(5), 54.
  41. Jackisch, J. (2017). (Dis) advantaged childhoods and premature mortality: cumulative inequalities over the life-course: Josephine Jackisch. The European Journal of Public Health, 27(suppl_3), ckx189-157.
  42. Jackisch, J. (2022). Troubled childhoods cast long shadows: Studies of childhood adversity and premature mortality in a Swedish post-war birth cohort (Doctoral dissertation, Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University).
  43. Jackisch, J., & Almquist, Y. B. (2023). Childhood adversity is associated with hospitalisations and survival following external causes and non-communicable diseases: a 46-year follow-up of a Stockholm birth cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health, 77(4), 209-215.
  44. Jackisch, J., Brännström, L., & Almquist, Y. B. (2019). Troubled childhoods cast long shadows: Childhood adversity and premature all-cause mortality in a Swedish cohort. SSM-population health, 9, 100506.
  45. Jackisch, J., & Liu, C. (2024). Taking a life course approach to healthy ageing and multimorbidity: defining risk factors is not the end, we can do more. The Lancet Healthy Longevity, 5(1), e8-e9.
  46. Jackisch, J., Ploubidis, G. B., & Gondek, D. (2021). Does time heal all wounds? Life course associations between child welfare involvement and mortality in prospective cohorts from Sweden and Britain. SSM-Population Health, 14, 100772.
  47. Jackisch, J., & van Raalte, A. (2022). The contribution of childhood adversity to the socioeconomic gradient in mortality: A Swedish birth cohort analysis. Available at SSRN 4229904.
  48. Landstedt, E., & Almquist, Y. B. (2019). Intergenerational patterns of mental health problems: The role of childhood peer status position. BMC psychiatry, 19(1), 1-10.
  49. Ledberg, A., Rajaleid, K., & Modin, B. (2022). Are there really no causal associations between childhood family income and subsequent outcomes?. International Journal of Epidemiology, 51(6), 2027-2028.
  50. Li, B., Almquist, Y. B., Liu, C., & Berg, L. (2023). Disentangling the multigenerational transmissions of socioeconomic disadvantages and mental health problems by gender and across lineages: Findings from the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study. SSM-Population Health, 22, 101357.
  51. Magnusson, C., & Låftman, S. B. (2019). Self-reported mental health problems in adolescence and occupational prestige in young adulthood: A 10-year follow-up study. Children and Youth Services Review, 101, 174-180.
  52. Miething, A., & Almquist, Y. B. (2020). Childhood peer status and circulatory disease in adulthood: a prospective cohort study in Stockholm, Sweden. BMJ open, 10(9), e036095.
  53. Rajaleid, K., & Vågerö, D. (2023). Parental and family determinants of the Flynn effect. Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, 1-23.
  54. Rajaleid, K., & Vågerö, D. (2019). Stress resilience in young men mediates the effect of childhood trauma on their offspring’s birth weight–An analysis of 250,000 families. SSM-Population Health, 8, 100429.
  55. Rajesh, T., Jonsson, K. R., Jackisch, J., & Straatmann, V. S. (2023). Changes in parents’ mental health related to child out-of-home care placements: A Swedish national register study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 140, 106149.
  56. Reitan, T., & Stenberg, S. Å. (2019). From classroom to conscription. Leadership emergence in childhood and early adulthood. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(3), 298-319.
  57. Rojas, Y., & Almquist, Y. B. (2019). Peer status position within school-based hierarchies and excessive fat accumulation in adulthood—a 30 year follow up of a Stockholm cohort. Behavioral Sciences, 9(8), 85.
  58. Ross, S., Jackisch, J., & Almquist, Y. B. (2023). Socioeconomic and psychosocial conditions of parents with children in out-of-home care: a qualitative systematic review. Available at SSRN 4703233.
  59. Sivertsson, F., Carlsson, C., Almquist, Y. B., & Brännström, L. (2024). Offending trajectories from childhood to retirement age: Findings from the Stockholm birth cohort study. Journal of Criminal Justice, 91, 102155.
  60. Sivertsson, F., Carlsson, C., & Hoherz, A. (2021). Is there a long-term criminogenic effect of the exposure to a paternal conviction during upbringing? An analysis of full siblings using Swedish register data. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 1-21.
  61. Stenberg, S. Å. (2018). Born in 1953. Stockholm University Press.
  62. Straatmann, V. S., Jackisch, J., Brännström, L., & Almquist, Y. B. (2022). Associations between out-of-home care and mental health disorders within and across generations in a Swedish birth cohort. SSM-Population Health, 18, 101115.
  63. Straatmann, V. S., Jackisch, J., Brännström, L., & Almquist, Y. B. (2021). Intergenerational transmission of out-of-home care and the role of mental health problems: Findings from Stockholm birth cohort multigenerational study. Social Science & Medicine, 284, 114223.
  64. Straatmann, V. S., Rajesh, T., Bennett, D. L., Forsman, H., Liu, C., Taylor-Robinson, D. C., … & Almquist, Y. B. Socioeconomic and Psychosocial Outcomes of Parents with Children in Out-of-Home Care: A Scoping Review. Available at SSRN 4658281.
  65. Thalén, A., & Ledberg, A. (2024). Consequences of heterogeneity in aging: parental age at death predicts midlife all-cause mortality and hospitalization in a Swedish national birth cohort. BMC geriatrics, 24(1), 207.
  66. Thalén, A., & Ledberg, A. (2024). Parental age at death is associated with age at first birth in offspring. Experimental Gerontology, 189, 112396.
  67. Torssander, J., & Almquist, Y. B. (2017). Trajectories of economic, work-and health-related disadvantage and subsequent mortality risk: findings from the 1953 Stockholm birth cohort. Advances in Life Course Research, 31, 57-67.
  68. Vågerö, D., Aronsson, V., & Modin, B. (2018). Why is parental lifespan linked to children’s chances of reaching a high age? A transgenerational hypothesis. SSM-population health, 4, 45-54.
  69. Vågerö, D., Aronsson, V., & Modin, B. (2019). Why Is Parental Lifespan Linked to Children’s Chances of Reaching a High Age? A Transgenerational Hypothesis. Early Life Origins of Ageing and Longevity, 245-267.
  70. Vågerö, D., Cederström, A., & van den Berg, G. J. (2022). Food abundance in men before puberty predicts a range of cancers in grandsons. Nature Communications, 13(1), 7507.
  71. Wall-Wieler, E., Almquist, Y., Liu, C., Vinnerljung, B., & Hjern, A. (2018). Intergenerational transmission of out-of-home care in Sweden: A population-based cohort study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 83, 42-51.