Healthy eating in life course context: Asymmetric implications of socioeconomic origins and destinations

Abstract

Though extensive research links childhood and adult socioeconomic status (SES) to various dimensions of physical and mental health, little of it has examined diet quality, a key health behavior with implications for chronic disease and longevity. Drawing from life course and social mobility perspectives, we investigate how different configurations of SES origin and destination explain variations in the diet quality of American adults. Results from linear regression analyses using the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study indicate that higher SES in both childhood and adulthood is associated with elevated diet quality, while low SES at both time points predicts lower quality. Downward mobility is linked to poorer diet quality only for those who fall to the lowest rung of adulthood SES. Upward mobility, on the other hand, shows no discernible benefits, even for those who rise to the highest SES quartile. Most remarkably, we identify an enduring benefit of early SES advantage that persists despite downward mobility, suggesting the importance of class-based health dispositions cultivated in the family, neighborhood, and peer groups of one's youth. We discuss these origin and destination asymmetries in light of life course theory and health lifestyles, emphasizing how early advantage interacts with broader social forces—such as the 'default American lifestyle'—to shape diet quality across adulthood.