Prior studies consistently show that education has a positive association with good health. Progression through the educational pipeline is seen as leading to higher cognitive abilities, better quality and more secure jobs in safe work environments, more opportunities to enhance income, greater capacity to increase wealth, and to a wider range of social networks that provide instrumental and emotional support. All these factors can lead to better health. Despite the stability of the education and health link, few studies have examined whether this association is consistent for different racial groups, especially Asian Americans. Asian Americans, in particular immigrants who are educated in another country, may not achieve the same status as some who received all of their education in the U.S. Accordingly, the processes that link education to health may be quite different for African Americans, Asian Americans, and whites. This application uses four different datasets that will shed additional light about the association between education and health. Collectively, the datasets have two unique features that allow us to examine the social and psychological factors that bind together race, education and health. The datasets include a range of health outcomes that provides a better explication about whether race and education have universal or specific associations with health. The datasets also include relatively large samples of whites, African Americans, and two specific Asian American ethnic groups (Chinese and Filipino) that will facilitate the use of complex multivariate analyses on different groups. The features of this dataset will provide a systematic assessment of how race shapes the pathways between education and health. To meet our goals, this application has two specific aims: (a) Describe the education and health association; and (b) establish the linkages between education and health.
