Do welfare regimes moderate cumulative dis/advantages over the life course? Cross-National evidence from longitudinal SHARE Data

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the cumulative disadvantage of different forms of childhood misfortune and adultlife socioeconomic conditions (SEC) with regard to trajectories and levels of self-rated health in old age and whether these associations differed between welfare regimes (Scandinavian, Bismarckian, Southern European, and Eastern European). Method: The study included 24,004 respondents aged 50–96 from the longitudinal SHARE survey. Childhood misfortune included childhood SEC, adverse childhood experiences, and adverse childhood health experiences. Adult-life SEC consisted of education, main occupational position, and financial strain. We analyzed associations with poor self-rated health using confounder-adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models for the complete sample and stratified by welfare regime. Results: Disadvantaged respondents in terms of childhood misfortune and adult-life SEC had a higher risk of poor selfrated health at age 50. However, differences narrowed with aging between adverse-childhood-health-experiences categories (driven by Southern and Eastern European welfare regimes), categories of education (driven by Bismarckian welfare regime), and main occupational position (driven by Scandinavian welfare regime). Discussion: Our research did not find evidence of cumulative disadvantage with aging in the studied life-course characteristics and age range. Instead, trajectories showed narrowing differences with differing patterns across welfare regimes.