Early-onset psychiatric disorders and male socioeconomic status

The authors seek to integrate economic, sociological and psychological models by examining whether early-onset psychiatric disorders predict adult male socioeconomic status. Unlike most status attainment studies, this study includes information on major psychiatric disorders. The study analyzes data from the National Comorbidity Survey, the first survey to administer a structured psychiatric interview to a national probability sample in the U.S. The tested sample includes men between the ages of 25 and 54 yrs. The authors found that disorders that occur before age 16 reduce educational attainment and the probability of being currently married and increase the probability of having a recent disorder, each of which is a predictor of adult male unemployment. These early-onset disorders had a direct negative effect on male employment. The estimated magnitudes of these effects were often as large as those of family background variables, suggesting that research on adult male SES should pay greater attention to mental health issues. (December 1998)