# Childhood Economic Resources and Mature Adult Health

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE · 2020 · $74,433

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Recent research provides novel evidence that childhood economic disadvantage undermines health among
older adults. Despite valuable contributions, most US-based research on this provocative theme has relied on
retrospective recollections of childhood resources from decades in the past. Even with prospective data, this
literature largely uses measures of childhood economic resources that do not rise to leading international
standards. We improve upon past research in critical ways by more fully incorporating leading international
standards in income measurement into the study of health. We will use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
(PSID), a large, nationally representative study that prospectively measures childhood economic resources as
well as a variety of health outcomes in mature adulthood. We capitalize on a pivotal strength of the PSID when
merged with the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF): comprehensive and higher quality prospective
measures of childhood income inclusive of taxes and transfers. We will strategically exploit the most recent
waves of the PSID-CNEF to include a larger sample of children from the 1970s and 1980s who have reached
ages 40-63 by 2017. Our project has three specific aims. First, we will provide the most rigorous assessment to
date of the relationship between childhood economic resources and mature adult health outcomes. More
precisely, our innovations will demonstrate (a) potential nonlinearities and critical thresholds in the income-
health relationship; (b) which measures of mature adult health are most influenced by childhood income; and
(c) which elements of economic resources are most crucial to mature adult health. Second, we will assess
whether relative or absolute childhood income is most important to mature adult health. Third, we will
investigate the role of adult socio-economic attainment and adult health behaviors as mediating pathways.
Finally, we will build a public good infrastructure of code for replication and to encourage better measurement
of childhood economic resources in studies using the same or other datasets. By incorporating leading
standards in income measurement, and utilizing higher quality data on prospectively measured childhood
income and a wide variety of health outcomes among older adults, this project has the potential to make novel
and salient contributions. We aim to improve understanding of the relationship between childhood economic
resources and mature adult health. More generally, we will contribute to several fields in the social science of
health, healthy aging, and health disparities. By making these contributions, we will advance these fields’
already valuable knowledge for public policy. Specifically, our research can inform more effective targeting of
interventions – at which points in the childhood income distribution and through which mediating pathways – to
improve mature adult health. Our research can also guide health practitioners with more...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9891842
- **Project number:** 1R03AG062842-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** David Brady
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $74,433
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-01-15 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9891842

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9891842, Childhood Economic Resources and Mature Adult Health (1R03AG062842-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9891842. Licensed CC0.

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