The proposed research focuses on changes in gender and racial disparities in health and well-being from 1972-2008. These years cover an important period in U.S. history during which the social status of women and minorities improved dramatically relative to that of white men. I evaluate the implications of these changes for health disparities. The study has two specific aims: (1) to establish the patterns of racial and gender disparities in health and quality of life from 1972-2008 and (2) to evaluate the contributions of stability and change in four major domains of social life (socioeconomic attainment of women and minorities, marital patterns/family structures, labor market patterns and the persistence of neighborhood disadvantage) to these patterns. The data for this study come from the General Social Survey (GSS) collected between 1972 and 2008, a series of replicating cross-sectional surveys which allow researchers to monitor social change and stability over time. Four measures of well-being are available across these years: self-assessed health, happiness, marital happiness and life satisfaction. The proposed research applies both basic and advanced statistical techniques to this data (e.g. ordinary least squares regression, binary logistic regression and decomposition techniques) to analyze and identify key historical forces that have shaped racial and gender disparities in health. By so doing, my project promises to yield important new insights into the causes and mechanisms of racial and gender disparities in health and well-being. Scholars have speculated about the role of historical and social factors in the changing profile of health disparities by gender and race;but have provided little empirical evidence with which to evaluate those speculations. I propose the first systematic, empirical investigation to address this gap. By so doing, my project promises to yield important new insights into the causes and mechanisms of racial and gender disparities in health and well-being during the final decades of the 20th century and the first years of the new millennium.
Scholars have speculated about the role of historical and social factors in the changing profile of health disparities by gender and race;but have provided little empirical evidence with which to evaluate those speculations. I propose the first systematic, empirical investigation to address this gap. By so doing, my project promises to yield important new insights into the causes and mechanisms of racial and gender disparities in health and well-being during the final decades of the 20th century and the first years of the new millennium.
