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Since the Chinese government set up the household registration system (hukou in Chinese) in 1958, Chinese society has been institutionally divided into urban and rural sectors, described as between heaven and earth by some scholars. Such a rural-urban dual structure started to change and evolve into a social structure much more complex and stratified with China economic development over the past decades. With China economic opening launched in the late 1970s, the emergence of township and village enterprises in the 1980s, the creation of special economic zones in the 1990s, and the acceleration of urbanisation in the 2000s, there have been millions of rural population moving from the rural to the urban areas in the purpose of better life chances for themselves, their family, and their descendants. This rural-to-urban mobility driven by better life chances in cities is still ongoing and has reshaped the social structure and generated new social groupings. This study develops a new research scheme that differentiates six social groupings structured by hukou types, migration statuses, and occupational conditions. From a rural-to-urban perspective, these six social groupings are outright peasants, local migrant workers, return migrant workers, outgoing migrant workers, new urbanites, and outright urbanites. These migration-related social classes provide a comprehensive understanding of the social structure transitioned over the past decades in contemporary Chinese society. The present thesis uses the China Labour Dynamics Surveys to study the disparities in contemporary China as guided by the rural-urban class scheme developed in this study. The socioeconomic inequalities embedded in these social groupings are thoroughly investigated in the educational, economic, and psychological domains, and the analysis shows pronounced socioeconomic inequalities among the Chinese people. Compared to the urbanites, the rural groups are constantly disadvantaged in educational and economic opportunities and outcomes and psychologically in self-concepts relative to the urbanites. The accumulation of human capital (education, training, and qualifications) could play an important role for rural groups in improving their disadvantaged life chances. However, they still need to endure rural penalties in return for their human capital accumulation compared to the urbanites. More policies and practices that can generate more affirmative effects for the rural groups are needed to be introduced to shorten the disparities across contemporary China society.

Much of the current evidence on how non-cognitive skills are determined and affect outcomes in later-life focuses on these skills measured in childhood and adulthood. However, adolescence is a key period for shaping individual capabilities. This thesis furthers the literature on the determinants and long-term health consequences of adolescent non-cognitive skills. Throughout, I use data from the National Child Development Study, a longitudinal study of individuals born in the first week of March 1958. Firstly, I examine whether parental education causally determines aggregate and facet-level adolescent non-cognitive skills. I exploit exogenous variation in parental education generated by the 1947 raising of the school leaving age. The reform increased maternal education by an average of 7.0 months and paternal education by 4.6 months. The increase in mothers' education led to increases in conscientiousness through one of its facets, rigidity. The increase in fathers' education led to decreases in agreeableness through three of its facets (respect for property, obedience and truthfulness). Secondly, I examine the association between adolescent non-cognitive skills and physiological health and mortality at ages 44 and 58. I decompose the total associations into direct and indirect associations operating through employment status, education, smoking behaviour, drinking behaviour and relationship status at age 33. The results show that adolescent non-cognitive skills are associated with physiological health and mortality through their effects on well-known risk factors: smoking and education. Finally, I examine the association between adolescent non-cognitive skills and the whole unconditional distribution of objective and subjective health. Higher conscientiousness is associated with a better stress response and lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Higher agreeableness is associated with better health-related quality of life, better physiological health, but a worse stress response. Higher neuroticism is associated with worse health-related quality of life and physiological health, and higher cardiovascular risk. For all health outcomes except cardiovascular risk, the associations are greatest at the extreme of the distribution indicating worse health. Future research should seek to understand these relationships further, to develop effective interventions and convince policy makers to intervene.

High levels of inflammatory and stress-related biomarkers have been linked with several health conditions in older adults. Living in socioeconomic disadvantage may affect the levels of the biomarkers, however, previous findings are not consistent. Previous studies have used complete case analysis and ignored the high proportion of missing biomarker data in biosocial surveys. Longitudinal studies examining ageing populations are susceptible to attrition and non-random dropout and ignoring missing data can produce biased estimates due to selection processes and loss of precision. This thesis investigated socioeconomic differences in inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein and stress-related biomarkers cortisol and cortisone after compensating for missing data. The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) was used for the analyses. Complete case analyses were compared with methods considering random missingness: Inverse Probability Weighting, Full Information Maximum Likelihood, and Multiple Imputation, and non-random missingness: Diggle-Kenward and Pattern-Mixture approaches. Differences between the least and most disadvantaged categories of education, wealth, and social class in C-reactive protein and cortisol and cortisone levels existed after adjusting for covariates. C-reactive protein levels were higher in the inverse probability weighting and multiple imputation models compared to complete case models in cross-sectional analysis. In longitudinal analysis, the C-reactive protein levels were higher in the Diggle-Kenward model compared to the other models considering random and non-random missingness. Socioeconomic differences in cortisol and cortisone levels were greater in the inverse probability weighting and multiple imputation models compared to the complete case models. The conclusions drawn suggest that living in socioeconomic disadvantage was a significant predictor of higher levels of inflammatory and stress-related biomarkers and that complete case analyses may underestimate the socioeconomic differences in biomarkers compared to missing data approaches. This study demonstrates the importance of compensating for missingness in longitudinal biosocial studies for statistical inference.

This thesis empirically assesses the associations between socioeconomic status, acute and chronic stressors and stress related biomarkers during the working life-course for men and women living in England aged over 50 years. Specifically, this thesis seeks to understand the extent to which, acute and chronic stressors over the working life-course, help to explain socioeconomic differences in stress related biomarkers among older adults. To rigorously undertake this research, the basis of the thesis is comprised by three empirical papers: 1. Socioeconomic status and Perceived stress differences in diurnal cortisol: Longitudinal evidence from the Whitehall II Study. 2. Are socioeconomic differences in diurnal cortisol profiles underestimated by missing values? Compensating for Missing Data in the Whitehall II Study. 3. Allostatic Load and Effort-Reward Imbalance: Associations over the Working-Career. The contribution of this thesis to the research literature is unique in its treatment and modelling of the determinants of stress related biomarkers. Firstly, I explored the role that acute stress (perceived stress) and chronic stress (socioeconomic status) have in explaining the levels of stress (cortisol) throughout the day. I found that there were socioeconomic differences in diurnal cortisol profiles, which persisted even after controlling for perceived stress. However, perceived stress did not help to explain why the poorest civil servants had flatter diurnal cortisol slopes. Secondly, due to the amount of missing data, I analysed if missing data could lead to an underestimation of the socioeconomic differences in the diurnal cortisol slope. Using multiple imputation, and I found that imputed estimates of cortisol tended to be a bit higher at awakening for the middle and high socioeconomic groups, while the estimates for the low-grade jobs group diverged at bedtime, showing a flatter diurnal slope for the multiple imputation estimates. This suggests that the presence of missing data could lead to an underestimation in socioeconomic differences in biomarker of the stress response. Thirdly, using allostatic load, I explored if work stress (measured by effort-reward imbalance) over the working career predicts higher levels of allostatic load. Repeated exposure to effort-reward imbalance towards the end of the working career predicted higher levels of allostatic load, with employees working in semi-routine and routine jobs reporting more accumulated effort-reward imbalance. We now have a better understanding of the association between socioeconomic status and biomarker of the stress response. Through the analysis of acute (perceived stress) and chronic stressors, the former may not be as important in understanding socioeconomic differences in stress compared to chronic stressors like work related stressors over the working life-course.

Education and other cognitively stimulating activities (CSA) are potentially modifiable factors which may improve cognitive maintenance in later life. As these social exposures are not possible to effectively randomise, inferences from observational data are particularly important. Existing research findings differ regarding whether CSA are associated with cognitive maintenance. This may be explained in part by limitations and implicit assumptions in the most commonly used methods to analyse these associations. This thesis asks how modifiable social exposures affect cognitive maintenance and examines some of the assumptions underlying standard methods such as growth modelling. The analysis uses the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative longitudinal cohort study of adults aged over 50 living in England. A series of assumptions in standard regression approaches and their implications for the association between education or CSA and cognitive maintenance are examined. Firstly, ELSA's scoring method for memory and executive function is examined using factor analysis. The memory score performs well, but the executive function score does not reflect the data. This leads to incorrect estimation of the association between cognitive maintenance and some important predictors such as age. I then tested for longitudinal measurement invariance (MI) in the cognitive factors and found this did not hold for memory in ELSA using Bayesian approximate MI. This is an advance on conventional tests of MI which had found equivocal results. The assumption that the ELSA sample is drawn from one homogenous population, and that the effect of education on cognitive maintenance is the same across sub-populations, were then tested using growth mixture modelling. A small beneficial effect of higher educational attainment on cognitive maintenance was found in a stable cognition latent class but no association was seen in latent classes with declining cognition. If CSA participation improves cognitive maintenance, and better cognition increases the likelihood of participation in CSA, this generates time varying confounding affected by prior exposure. Standard growth curves must assume this to be absent. Using inverse probability of treatment weighted marginal structural models to relax this assumption, volunteering and internet use activities were still found to reduce the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment. This research contributes methodologically to the existing literature by demonstrating how some of the assumptions underpinning the regression models most commonly used to estimate the association between CSA and cognitive maintenance can influence the substantive conclusions drawn. Specifically, it finds that ELSA's executive function index does not represent the data well and Bayesian approximate MI can be used to clarify equivocal conventional tests of longitudinal measurement invariance of the cognitive test factors. Substantively, I find that the effect of education on cognitive maintenance varies somewhat depending on underlying trajectory, and that the association of volunteering and internet use activities with improved cognitive maintenance is robust after time varying confounding is accounted for.

This thesis examines inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) in the transition to higher education. IEO measures the difference in higher education entry rates across social groups. The theoretical framework lays on Boudon's decomposition of IEO into primary and secondary effects of stratification. Furthermore, the theoretical propositions of Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI) and Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI) were also assessed to gain further understanding of IEO. The longitudinal data for the empirical analysis was created for a student cohort by linking administrative records of Chile's national student register, standardised tests and higher education enrolment. The student cohort was followed through the 12-years of compulsory education up to the transition to higher education, a year after completing secondary education. The results from the empirical analysis showed that secondary effects were consistently predominant over primary effects, driving the overall IEO. On the other hand, controlling for school characteristics increased the relative importance of secondary effects. However, primary effects explained a large extent of IEO in the transition to traditional (most prestigious) universities, by the same token, in the transition to undergraduate programmes. Differences in parental education levels between secondary education completion and higher education transitions proved to be consistent with MMI. Likewise, the higher likelihood of less advantaged students to enrol in vocational colleges or vocational programmes, and the higher likelihood of advantaged students to enrol in traditional universities or undergraduate programmes, evidenced support for EMI. The modelling setting was based on non-linear mediation modelling, accounting for sample-selection in the student cohort, two-level cross-classification between primary and secondary schools, and multinomial outcomes for type of institution and programme. This thesis contributes to the educational attainment literature by finding evidence that, in emerging economies like Chile, educational inequality persists despite the sustained expansion of the educational system.

This thesis empirically assesses the degree to which differential attainment of socioeconomic status in the form of occupational earnings changes over the life course for members of the 1958 National Child Development Study birth cohort and how their socioeconomic background in childhood influences the development of their occupational earnings. Specifically, this thesis seeks to understand the extent to which socioeconomic gaps between cohort members narrow, widen or remain rigid throughout the life course. To rigorously undertake this research, three papers form the basis of the investigation: 1. Multilevel modelling approach to analysing life course socioeconomic status and compensating for missingness 2. How does parental social mobility during childhood affect socioeconomic status over the life course? 3. Linear quantile mixed models for investigating life course occupational earnings distributions The contribution of this thesis to the research literature is unique in its treatment and modelling of the socioeconomic status outcome variable. Specifically, I treat the outcome variable as continuous and repeatedly measured over the life course thereby enabling a more fine-grained investigation of between-individual socioeconomic status heterogeneity over time. This treatment enables me to observe differentials within broad social classes and study both the change in adulthood socioeconomic status and legacy effect pertaining to childhood socioeconomic background. The heterogeneity I observe helps determine that the occupational earnings development between individuals does not converge over the life course from 1981 to 2013 (age 23 to 55) controlling for their socioeconomic background, sex at birth and region of residence. The main implication of the thesis is that there is no evidence of the childhood socioeconomic status gap narrowing in adulthood and that higher parental socioeconomic status up to the age of 16 only serves to widen such a gap over the life course. This represents the key finding of this study on a sample of people in Great Britain from the late baby boomer generation.

The economic wellbeing, physical and mental health of the ageing population in the United Kingdom is associated with continued participation in the labour force. Encouraging later life employment is therefore a key policy issue. Research into older person's employment trajectories is concentrated on male working patterns, and often takes an individualistic approach that does not account for the domestic context. Previous research on women's labour force participation has been informed by small scale qualitative studies that do consider the household domain but these findings cannot be generalized to the wider population. This research investigates the factors associated with the continued employment of women aged 50 to 59 using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Transition rates out of employment between 2001 and 2011 are modeled using multilevel discrete time event history specifications that permit the inclusion of time varying covariates. Retirement is characterized as an ageing process which allows the impact of predictors on transition rates to be assessed and measured as women approach state pension age. Alternative time structures are considered, with parameter estimates from an age baseline model compared with those from a time on study specification. Results illustrate the sensitivity of parameter estimates in discrete time event history models to the measurement of time, and emphasize the importance of adopting a time metric that is commensurate with the theoretical representation of retirement as a dynamic ageing process. The domestic context is realised as sampled women and their male partners are positionedwithin a household structure, and asymmetric effects of predictors on the transition rate of each gender are considered. Own poor health, caring responsibilities and a retired or inactive spouse accelerate labour market exit for women whilst high levels of accrued pension wealth predict earlier transitions for their male partners. The age of employment exit for females is independent of pension wealth, but pension resources do predict the retirement pathway taken following any transition that does occur. Women residing in the wealthiest households are more likely to report as voluntary retired prior to state pension age whilst those in the poorest of couples are at higher risk of following an involuntary pathway into an alternative inactive state. These findings emphasize the importance of conducting research into later life employment trajectories on a household, rather than individual, basis.

Community cohesion in Britain has been an issue of policy concern in recent years in which the role of migrants in the UK has been scrutinised in terms of their sense of belonging, integration and their economic and social contribution to society. However, much of the existing literature, in this area relates to the experiences of low/unskilled labour migrants. This thesis redresses this imbalance and examines the experiences of overseas-trained South Asian doctors. It provides unique insights into the debates about integration, cultural identity and community cohesion based on an empirical study of overseas-trained South Asian General Practitioners who are elite migrants. A mixed method approach was employed that included secondary data analysis of the GP Workforce Statistics and in-depth interviews with 27 overseas-trained South Asian doctors in three different geographical locales in England with varying ethnic populations. The quantitative analysis shows that a significant and increasing proportion of NHS doctors continue to be overseas-trained South Asian doctors. It also provides evidence of geographical clustering with South Asian doctors being over represented in deprived areas with high and low ethnic minority concentrations. The case studies and interviews with the GPs reveal a complex intertwining of macro-, micro- and meso- structures in the migratory process, related, in part, to the legacy of empire and also to the inner workings and opportunities provided by an organisation such as the NHS. In order to overcome blocked social mobility within the NHS hospital structure, entry into General Practice appears to be an entrepreneurial step for overseas-trained South Asian doctors, also facilitated by regional NHS institutional structures like Primary Care Trusts. Evidence shows that doctors have integrated their cultural/religious values creatively in their adaptation to Britain importing innovation into their everyday experiences. The findings show that there are parallels to be drawn with the experiences of low/unskilled South Asians, in particular, in the area of structural integration. However, there is variation as to how these elite professionals approach issues related to socio-cultural integration thus adding a new dimension to our existing understanding of community cohesion in the UK.

Objectives: Extending working lives is a major strategy in policy responses to ageing populations. This is currently being implemented by means of the increasing UK state pension age. However, the health effects of such changes are highly debatable. A systematic review conducted by this thesis revealed that previous research on the topic has provided a diverse set of findings. One of the reasons for the lack of agreement between previous studies is the high degree of heterogeneity in the study samples of older adults. This is statistically revealed by a meta-analysis conducted in this study. The research presented within this thesis examines whether extending working lives is beneficial for health, and focuses on the importance of accounting for quality of work when considering these effects. Methods: The study used respondents from waves 1 to 5 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who worked until state pension age and then entered either later-life employment or retirement. Linear spline regressions examined trajectories of depression, self-rated health and cognitive function across the retirement age period, stratified by work quality and retirement. Propensity score matching was subsequently used to estimate unbiased treatment effects of extended working as opposed to retirement, and then of poor and good quality work individually in relation to retirement. Results: The spline models indicated entering retirement from work was associated with a significant change in patterns of depression and self-rated health, but continuation of work was not. Retiree trajectories consistently showed poorer outcomes than those of respondents who were working. The results of the propensity score matching found no significant differences in health on the basis of belonging to the group of overall workers compared to retirees. However when work was stratified on the basis of its quality, significant differences became apparent. Belonging to the group of poor quality workers was associated with significantly worse depression than belonging to both the good quality workers and retirees, and belonging to the group of good quality worker was associated with significantly better self-rated health than belonging to the group of retirees. Discussion: The heterogeneous socio-demographic and health characteristics of the older working population should be taken into account when examining impacts of employment on health. Failure to account for differences in quality of work may lead to the incorrect assumption that extended employment is beneficial to the health of all workers. If older people are going to be encouraged to work for longer periods of time, beneficial effects need to apply to all working groups. Employers need to ensure adjustments to individual working patterns and environments are made in order to suit the needs of an ageing workforce.

This thesis applies methods from social statistics to answer the question as to whether pupils with support needs that are additional to those that can be catered for by mainstream educational provision (i.e. pupils with English languages needs or those with Special Educational Needs), exert an effect on the attainment and attendance of their classmates during the second half of primary schooling in England. Including such pupils within mainstream schools has been the dominant policy paradigm since the 1980s, though the effect on other pupils has not been comprehensively assessed, despite being of concern to parents, teachers and policymakers. The main findings of this thesis are:- The effect on pupil attainment of peers with Special Educational Needs, and, to a lesser extent, peers with English language needs, is heterogeneous by a pupil’s own prior attainment. Pupils at the higher end of the prior attainment distribution experience the largest negative effects from such pupils. Such heterogeneity is predicted by theory and this thesis represents the first demonstration of these effects on pupils in England, refining and updating existing research. The size of these effects are however small relative to other influences on a pupil’s attainment.- Peers with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties have a stronger negative effect on classmates’ attainment than do other ASN peer types. This supports the theory that classroom disruption may be a mechanism by which peer effects in schools operate. This finding concurs with studies from the USA and is consistent with concerns of the teaching profession with regard to the inclusion of such pupils within schools.- Peers with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties are also found to induce absenteeism in their classmates, but only where the classmates are in receipt of free schools meals, a common proxy for low household income. This finding represents one of the first quantitative analyses of pupil absence in England and contributes to a very small but growing literature on non-academic outcomes within schools. The findings have implications for debates on inclusion of ASN pupils within schools and provide evidence of why educational inequalities are present in the English schools system.