Why Do College Graduates Behave More Healthfully Than Those Who Are Less Educated?

2017/06/28 by Elizabeth M. Lawrence, Elizabeth Lawrence · 183 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · #Demographic economics #Demography #Economics #Health and Lifestyle Studies #Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet #Physical Activity and Health #Psychology #Sociology

paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0022146517715671

published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior 58(3), 291-306 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2017/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

College graduates live much healthier lives than those with less education, but research has yet to document with certainty the sources of this disparity. This study examines why U.S. young adults who earn college degrees exhibit healthier behavior than those with less education. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which offers information on education and health behaviors across adolescence and young adulthood (N=14,265). Accounting for selection into college degree attainment substantially reduces the associations between college degree attainment and health behavior, but college degree attainment demonstrates a strong causal effect on young adult health. Financial, occupational, social, cognitive, and psychological resources explain less than half of the association between college degree attainment and health behavior. The healthier behaviors of college graduates are the result of sorting into educational attainment, embedding of human capital, and mechanisms other than socioeconomic and psychosocial resources.

Citations

• Health Lifestyle Theory and the Convergence of Agency and Structure
• Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Health Inequalities: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications
• The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.

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