Variations in links between educational success and health: Implications for enduring health disparities

Educational achievement and attainment have been posited to narrow health disparities seen across the socioeconomic spectrum and among racial and ethnic groups. Yet emerging evidence suggests that striving for educational success in contexts of marginalization may actually dysregulate physiological stress processes, thereby exacerbating rather than narrowing health disparities. Utilizing an allostatic load perspective and data drawn from a nationally representative sample, this study sought to clarify these links by attending to potential variation across the socioeconomic spectrum and among racial and ethnic groups.

Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, multilevel regression analyses considered prospective associations between educational achievement and attainment and allostatic load among 12,672 young adults followed from ages 16 to 29 years. Interaction terms considered the potential for variation across the socioeconomic spectrum and among racial/ethnic groups.

Findings revealed promotive links between educational attainment and physiological health but also suggested that benefits were not shared by all youth. Although links were consistent across the socioeconomic spectrum, non-Hispanic Black and Mexican American youth experienced reversed links-with educational attainment presaging higher rather than lower levels of allostatic load.

These results extend this arena of work by highlighting the role that racial and ethnic-rather than socioeconomic-marginality plays in differential links between educational success and physiological health. Additional longitudinal research is necessary to discern the processes and contexts that may link educational success with differential later health among racial and ethnic groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).