Life course inequalities: generations and social class

This chapter studies health inequalities from a generational perspective but also aims to adopt a life course perspective. It explains that the life course approach emphasises the dimension of time from the individual's perspective by, for example, focusing on the long-term consequences of specific historical conditions encountered earlier in life. It discusses some important topics related to generations and the life course approach. It presents data and the construction of key variables and provides some background data on class differences in mortality by birth cohort. It analyses childhood class inequalities for different birth cohorts across various parts of the life course and how these differentials relate to adult class position. It also presents results that focus on how ill health is differentiated depending on a person's total class experience in life so far. It also discusses how to interpret the findings.