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#2005-06: Sibling Models of the Role of Job Characteristics in Mediating SES-Health Relationships.
Authors: Jeanie E. Brand, Institute for Social Research, Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Michigan; John Robert Warren, Department of Sociology, Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota; and Pascale Carayon and Peter Honnakker, Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement, University of Wisconsin - Madison
ABSTRACT: We focus on physical and psychosocial job characteristics as mediators in the link between education, earnings, and occupational standing and self-assessed overall health, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health problems, and depression. From sociological research on the stratification of employment outcomes, we expect that people with less education also have lower earnings and lower levels of occupational standing, and have more physically and psychosocially demanding jobs. From the occupational stress, ergonomics, and job design literatures, we expect that physically and cognitively demanding jobs and jobs with varying amounts of control are associated with health outcomes. Consequently, we expect to find that job characteristics play an important mediating role in associations between SES and health. To address these hypotheses, we use data on sibling pairs from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. We find support for our hypotheses, although the extent to which job characteristics mediate SES-health relationships varies across health outcomes and by gender.
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