Cultural Capital as a Fundamental Health Resource: Evidence from a Life-Course Analysis

Socioeconomic health inequalities persist across the life course, yet research on their determinants has largely focused on material resources and conventional indicators of socioeconomic status. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and the sociology of health, this study examines whether cultural resources acquired in childhood constitute an overlooked mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of health inequalities. Using data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (1992–2020) combined with the Life History Mail Survey (N = 14,905), the analysis employs structural equation modeling to assess how childhood cultural capital shapes health outcomes in later life. The model integrates childhood socioeconomic status, childhood health, educational attainment, adult socioeconomic position, and adult health trajectories within a life-course framework. Results indicate that childhood cultural capital is significantly associated with better health in older age, even after accounting for childhood conditions, education, wealth, occupational status, and prior health. The total association operates through both indirect pathways, primarily via education and subsequent socioeconomic attainment, and a substantial direct pathway not fully explained by these mediators. Although childhood health remains the strongest predictor of later-life health, the findings suggest that cultural resources acquired during early socialization represent an independent and enduring influence on health trajectories. These results highlight the importance of incorporating cultural capital into life-course models of health inequality.