Intergenerational mobility, race, and allostatic load: Diminished health returns for Black older adults?

Although socioeconomic status is salient for health and well-being across the life course, previous research indicates that the social gradient in health is racialized and that Black adults experience diminishing health returns on higher socioeconomic status. We extend this literature by examining whether there are diminishing physiological health returns on intergenerational mobility groups for Black adults and, if so, whether diminishing health returns vary across age. We use six waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 11,846) and mixed effects models; and average marginal effects are used to interpret the race by intergenerational mobility interaction. We found evidence of racial disparities in allostatic load and that Black respondents with stable high socioeconomic status experienced diminished health returns that did not vary across age. Future research is needed to undercover practices and policies to ameliorate diminishing health returns for Black adults.