As economic expansions raise employment and wages, associated shifts in income and time constraints would be expected to also impact individuals’ health. This study utilizes information from the US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (1990–2009) to explore the relationship between the...

Although scholars have noted the connection between appearance and assumptions of health, the degree to which these assumptions matter for establishing authority in social interaction remains less clear. Using a theoretical framework involving “bodily capital”—that is, the value generated...

Physical activity is an important determinant of obesity and overall health for children, but significant race/ethnic and nativity disparities exist in the amount of physical activity that children receive, with immigrant children particularly at risk for low levels of physical activity. In this...

Medical sociologists hold that social conditions generate disparities across a host of health conditions through exposure to a variety of more proximate risk factors. Though distal and proximal causes jointly influence disease, the nature of risk accumulation may differ appreciably by the link...

A large, venerable literature demonstrates the importance of social relationships and social support for health, though much less research examines whether the benefits of social support to mothers extend to children. This paper examines the relationship between mothers' perceptions of...

Mental illness stigma refers to negative stereotypes and prejudices about people with mental illness, and is a widespread phenomenon with damaging social, psychological, and economic consequences. Despite considerable policy attention, mental illness stigma does not appear to have declined...

Concerns regarding sleep disorders in Hmong immigrants in the US emerged when an astonishingly high mortality rate of Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS) was documented in Hmong men. Stress, genetics, and cardiac abnormalities interacting with disordered sleep were hypothesized...

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...