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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jul 16.
Published in final edited form as: Soc Sci Med. 2011 Dec 14;74(4):625–636. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.10.021

Table 2.

Spousal and Young Adult Neighbor Correlations in Later-Life Health Status

All Adulthood yrs (35+) Age 35-55 Over 55

Spousal
Correlation
Young Adult
Neighbor
Correlation
Spousal
Correlation
Young Adult
Neighbor
Correlation
Spousal
Correlation
Young Adult
Neighbor
Correlation
Unconditional 0.4598
(0.0067)
0.3313
(0.0077)
0.4718
(0.0068)
0.3485
(0.0085)
0.3771
(0.0089)
0.3060
(0.0089)
Adjusted*
(net of residential sorting of HHs w/similar family
bckgrd)
-- 0.2677
Conditional, control for childhood SES 0.3605
(0.0075)
0.1988
(0.0083)
0.3739
(0.0076)
0.2116
(0.0098)
0.2593
(0.0098)
0.1592
(0.0095)
Conditional, control for childhood + young adult
family/neighborhood factors
0.2760
(0.0080)
0.1287
(0.0079)
0.3003
(0.0081)
0.1409
(0.0094)
0.1658
(0.0104)
0.0880
(0.0093)
*

To compute the adjusted neighbor correlations, we first estimated within-neighborhood estimates of the effects of family income, education, race, family structure, health insurance coverage, health behaviors, connectedness to informal sources of help and housing quality on health in adulthood. Then, we used the within-neighborhood estimates of the later-life health effects of this array of family characteristics to assess how much of the raw neighbor correlation is due to young adult neighbors having similar (observable) family characteristics as opposed to neighborhood effects per se . The estimation procedures are described in detail in the methods section of the paper. (The full model results used to compute the adjusted neighbor correlations are not shown to conserve space, but are available from the authors upon request).