Using data from Wave 1 (2004–2006) of the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), a national probability sample of women ages 25–45, we examine online information-seeking among ever-infertile women. Of the 1352 women who met criteria for infertility, 459 (34%) neither talked to a...

The long-term effects of childhood trauma on health are well-documented, but few population-based studies have explored how childhood trauma affects the risk of developing metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adulthood. Using data from 1234 adults in the second wave of Midlife in the United States...

Greater levels of socioeconomic position (SEP) are generally associated with better health. However results from previous studies vary across race/ethnicity and health outcomes. Further, the majority of previous studies do not account for the effects of life course SEP on health nor the effects...

Self-rated health (SRH) trajectories tend to decline over a lifetime. Moreover, the Cumulative Advantage and Disadvantage (CAD) model indicates that SRH trajectories are known to consistently diverge along socioeconomic positions (SEP) over the life course. However, studies of working adults to...

Within the school-class context, children attain a social position in the peer hierarchy to which varying amounts of status are attached. Studies have shown that peer status – i.e. the degree of acceptance and likeability among classmates – is associated with adult health. However, these...

Little is known about whether the childhood family psychosocial environment (characterized by cold, unaffectionate interactions, conflict, aggression, neglect and/or low nurturance) affects coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Objectives were to evaluate associations of childhood family...

Recently, researchers have challenged the basic tenet that marriage is universally protective for all individuals. We scrutinize socio-economic differences between married couples to shed light on the mechanisms underlying the effects of marriage. We introduce the life course perspective to...

Scholars call for greater attention to social contexts that promote and deter risk factors for health. Parenthood transforms social contexts in a myriad of ways that may influence long-term patterns of weight gain. Life course features of parenthood such as age at first birth, parity, and living...

As natural experiments, famines provide a unique opportunity to test the health consequences of nutritional deprivation during the critical period of early life. Using data on 4972 Chinese born between 1956 and 1963 who participated in a large mental health epidemiology survey conducted between...

Using the 1957–2011 data from 3682 White non-Hispanic women (297 incident breast cancer cases) in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, United States, we explore the effect of occupation in 1975 (at age 36) on breast cancer incidence up to age 72. Our study is motivated by the paradoxical...