Section 3: The impact of socioeconomic status on pregnancy and childcare Aim To examine the socioeconomic status of my study mother, Susan and assess whether she exhibits similar characteristics to other mothers in the same social class at a local, regional and national level. The effect of socioeconomic status on different aspects of pregnancy and childcare will be discussed. Introduction Significant health inequalities exist between different social classes. Moreover, lower social classes consistently describe their health as poorer in comparison to higher social classes [1]. Marmot’s central theory is that “the relationship between social circumstances and health is a graded one: the higher a person’s social position, the better his or her health” [2]. Social class is measured in several ways. Registrar General’s Classification groups different occupations into social classes according to their skill level. One of its weaknesses is that occupation is not always a good reflection of levels of income or poverty [3]. This flaw has prompted an attempt to construct a more satisfactory classification, the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) [4]. Both classifications are outlined in Table 1. Table 1: Occupational social class (SC) indices [5] Registrar General NS-SEC I Professional 1. Senior professionals/senior managers II Intermediate 2. Associate professionals/junior managers IIIN Skilled non-manual 3. Other administrative and clerical workers IIIM Skilled manual 4. Own account non-professional IV Semi-skilled manual 5. Supervisors, technicians and related workers V Unskilled manual 6. Intermediate workers 7. Other workers 8. Never worked/other inactive Alan and Susan are both white British and have ... ... middle of paper ... ...uences and outcomes with decreasing social class. Susan follows all of the trends for her social class. She consumes more than 5 portions of fruit and vegetables daily and also breastfeeds her baby. The data discussed throughout the report shows that mothers in higher social classes are more likely to follow a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables and to breast feed their babies. List of Tables Table 1: Occupational social class (SC) indices [5] 1 Table 2 Proportion of mothers who breast-feed by social class [6] 4 Table 3 The age of mothers who did and did not choose to breastfeed [6] 5 List of Figures Figure 1 Portions of fruit and vegetables consumed (all individuals by social class) [6] 2 Figure 2 Estimates of fruit and vegetable consumption in local areas of the North East [12] 3 Figure 3 The regional statistics of breastfeed initiation in England [18] 4
Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power (Conley ). In the United States, we use social classes as our social stratification system. Going back to the idea of equality of condition, starting in different social classes is not fair. The underclass doesn’t get a fair chance to move up in social class. An article written by Alana Semuels called Poor at 20, Poor for Life was published in the Atlantic. Semuels considered how social mobility has gone down in recent years. In her article, she states “It’s not an exaggeration: It really is getting harder to move up in America. Those who make very little money in their first jobs will probably still be making very little decades later, and those who start off making middle-class wages have similarly limited paths.” Proving the point that social mobility has become a pipe dream. Overall, social classes provide an invisible barrier that stop people from being able to move social
...an, P., Egerter, S., & Williams, D. R. (2011). The social determinants of health: coming
Wilkinson, R.G. & Marmot, M.G. 2003, Social determinants of health: the solid facts, World Health Organization.
Krebs-Smith J, SM Krebs-Smith, and H Smiciklas -Wright. Variety in Foods. In Peter F, What Is America Eating? Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1986.
Becoming an adult is signified differently in every culture, in America, reaching middle class status is one way that is used to indicate adulthood. To obtain middle class status one would need to acquire a job, become financially stable, get a house, and have a family. The “Mood Economy”, self-reliance, and distrust in institutions, as stated in Silva’s Coming Up Short, have reshaped what it means to become an adult. Replacing the traditional white picket fence ideals with new neoliberal ones. Although middle class status is still a goal for a lot of individuals, the number of people who reach middle class status has diminished significantly over the years. By examining the new milestones that mark adulthood and evaluating how the state reproduces little social mobility through “Attacking Solidarity” mentioned in Requiem for the American Dream, we can get a better idea of how the middle class disappeared before us.
Wilkinson, R. G., & Marmot, M. G. (2003). Social determinants of health: The solid facts.
Townsend, Nick, Simon Murphy, and Laurence Moore. "The More Schools Do To Promote Healthy Eating, The Healthier The Dietary Choices By Students." Journal Of Epidemiology & Community Health 65.10 (2011): 889-895. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
In modern society these 3 traditional social classifications, working, middle and upper class are outdated, fitting less than 40 percent of the United Kingdom's population. In April 2013 the British Broadcast Corporation introduced a new model for social classification, within the United Kingdom. Social class and socioeconomic groups traditionally have been defined by income, occupation and ed...
Americans assume that health care is the key to good health, however there is little evidence for this belief. There is always something beyond medical care. Much evidence reflects that the way in which people live, learn, work, and play has a greater impact on one’s health. There are also many factors referred to as ‘social determinants of health’ that affect Americans ' health in homes, work environments, and communities. These social determinants serve as barriers standing in the way to better health.
Socioeconomic Disparities and health are growing at a rapid rate throughout the United States of America. To further understand the meaning of Socioeconomic Disparities, Health and Socioeconomic disparities & health, this essay will assist in providing evidence. Disparities can be defined in many ways, of which include ethnic and racial background and class types that deal with it the most. Due to the low income some individuals receive, they have less access to health care and are at risk for major health issues. Although, ethnicity and socioeconomic status should not determine the level of health care one should receive or whether not the individual receives healthcare.
...0). This should be considered when measuring the impact of the evidence illustrated in table 1. While investigation is still in its infancy, researchers are examining the influence of different dimensions of social class and its various associations with health, thus allowing more accurate connections to be made. For example, improvements have been made to the classification process with the introduction of the NS-SEC. Widely regarded as a more precise measure than the Registrar General’s Social Class classification, and now widely used in ONS, the NS-SEC addressed many of the discrepancies associated with the old classification (Donkin et al., 2002b). This classification is present in the evidence illustrated in table 2 and figure 1. Both sets of evidence clearly demonstrate that health inequalities, in relation to social class, have increased in the 21st century.
The primary reason why the poor and working class can not mobilize themselves is that the effort that it takes to do so in most American cities is enormous. However, that is not to say that the burden of activism falls on the middle class or that the working class are too incompetent to mobilize each other. Rather it is the nature of society and our political system which is the biggest obstacle for them. First and foremost the very design of most American cities makes grassroots political movements very inconvienent. This is the result of very poor walkability (which city planners have said is key for municipal communities to grow and thrive) and consequentially few, if any, accessible and culturally intuitive areas to access and mobilize people. In addition to problems relating to city planning, the working class face challenges due to a political system which is set up to insulate from democracy as much as it can get away with. With two major political parties (whose ideas on the most consequential topics seem to be the same and
The essential question that I am focusing on for this CREQ is “Why do we have an “achievement gap” between students from different communities, racial and ethnic groups, and social class groups?” I feel that chapters 3 and 4 of the Johnson text allow me some insight on this particular essential question, considering the focus is on the relationship between capitalism and racism. This chapter reminded me of a question asked in our taping project, “How often do you think of your skin color?” and the response from the Johnson text is: when you’re white, you don’t have to. When you are a white, heterosexual, middle class student, you are able to attend school with learning as your only priority. The only obstacle in the way of that student’s success is
The researchers followed earlier study leads by equaling initiation of breastfeeding and formula fed exclusively to equal 1. Along with analyzing other breastfeeding durations including months spent breastfeeding before formula and age child received first formula fed. Also concluded from the earlier studies what maternal and household characteristics encourage the action of breastfeeding and differences in geographic campaign on breastfeeding promotion. The researchers “Control variables included child sex, race, and ethnicity; mother’s age, education, and marital status; and household participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (ever) and number of children” (Gurley-Calvez, Bullinder, & Kapinos,
Breastfeeding is proven as the ideal method for feeding babies. Nationwide, 76% of new moms choose to breastfeed and forgo formula feeding, but by three months post-partum that percentage has dropped drastically (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity 4). While breastfeeding is proven to reduce the risk of diarrhea, pneumonia, obesity, type-II diabetes, and improve results on intelligence tests (World Health Organization) many new moms abandon their goals of feeding babies for the recommended 2 years (World Health Organization) because of the discrimination received while nursing in public. Being viewed as a life choice, not a health choice, the general public ostracizes and alienates these women, arguing that modesty is more important than a baby’s right to eat.