The Social Patterning of Child Mortality

The Importance of Social Class, Gender, Family Structure, Immigrant Status and Population Density

Bibliographic Data

ID2248407
AuthorsViveca Ostberg (0000-0003-1531-0389, Stockholm University, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume19
Issue4
Pages415-435
Publication date1997-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9566.1997.tb00411.x
OpenAlexW1985250028
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited34

Which structural dimensions are most important for life chances have been the subject of debate. In this study, which uses data from the Swedish Census‐linked Deaths registry for the period 1980–86, structural differences in child mortality are analysed. The structural dimensions focused on are social class, gender, family structure, immigrant status and population density. When all structural dimensions were controlled for simultaneously, only social class and gender influenced disease mortality. Of these two structural dimensions, social class seemed to be the most important in terms of producing the greatest differences. For mortality due to accidents, on the other hand, all dimensions proved to be important. The mortality risk was higher for children in single‐parent households, for children whose parents were born outside Sweden, and for children living in the least densely populated areas. The greatest differences in mortality from accidents, however, were attributable to gender, followed by social class. Furthermore, mortality differences by the father's, the mother's and the family's class position, determined by the dominance method of class assignment, were compared. The class position of both parents was independently associated with child mortality but the family's position seemed to be the better discriminator in terms of class variation. The implications of these findings are that death risks during the whole childhood period are socially structured in Sweden and that social class is still a structural dimension of great importance

Biology · Class (philosophy) · Demographic economics · Developmental psychology · Dominance (genetics) · Economics · Geography · Immigration · Life chances · Political science · Population · Social class · Social position · Social relation · Sociology · Computer Science · Demography · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Gender Studies · Global Health Care Issues · Health disparities and outcomes · Psychology · Social Psychology

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