Life course transitions in early adulthood and SES disparities in tobacco use

• Youth with highly educated parents smoke less in adolescence.
• Differences in smoking by parental education widen in young adulthood.
• Achieved socioeconomic status (SES) in young adulthood reduces smoking.
• Achieved SES helps account for diverse age trajectories by parental education.
• Family background and life course transitions combine to affect smoking.

A huge literature has documented adult socioeconomic disparities in smoking but says less about how these disparities emerge over the life course. Building on findings that smoking among adolescents differs only modestly by parental SES, we utilize a life course perspective on social differentiation to help explain the widening disparities in smoking in young adulthood. Our theory suggests that achieved socioeconomic status and the nature and timing of adult role transitions affect age-based trajectories of smoking and widen disparities in adult smoking. The analyses use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which follows a representative national sample over four waves from ages 11–17 in 1994/1995 to 26–34 in 2007/2008. The results show divergent age trajectories in smoking by parental education and that achieved socioeconomic status and life course roles in young adulthood account in good part for differences in the age trajectories. The findings demonstrate the value of the life course perspective in understanding processes of increasing stratification in health behavior and health during the transition to adulthood.