What is the role of state contextual factors in shaping the well-documented relationship between childhood SES and health in later life? Join the Panel Study of Income Dynamics as they host, Emily Dore, postdoctoral research fellow at the Social Policies for Health Equity Research (SPHERE) Center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Please RSVP by November 14 to receive lunch.

Abstract: "Research has repeatedly shown that individual-level measures of childhood socioeconomic status (SES), such as parental income and education, are associated with health in later life. Less explored is the role of state contextual factors in shaping this relationship between childhood SES and adult health. Illuminating structural and political determinants of health along the life span can improve interventions by broadening their reach to the population level, complimenting interventions that concentrate on individual behavioral changes. In this presentation, Dr. Dore will present findings from two projects that explore these questions using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The first investigates how the relationship between childhood SES and health in adulthood varies across states, and which state contexts may be driving observed differences. The second examines a specific policy intervention, welfare reform in the mid-1990s, to understand how exposure to different types of welfare programming in childhood shapes health years later."