The lifelong socioeconomic disadvantage of single-mother background - the Helsinki Birth Cohort study 1934–1944

BMC Public Health

Table 6 Adulthood income level in thirds according to mother’s marital status and parental occupation

Income level in adulthood in thirds (n = 12251)
	Highest		Intermediate		Lowest
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 1	Model 2	Model 1	Model 2
Groups defined by mother’s marital status, the presence of male caregiver, and his occupation
Married mother, male caregiver worker	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.	Ref.
Unmarried mother, no indication of male caregiver^a	Ref.	Ref.	1.59	1.44	2.20	1.94
Unmarried mother, no indication of male caregiver^a	Ref.	Ref.	(1.11–2.28)	(1.00–2.06)	(1.56–3.09)	(1.37–2.74)
Unmarried mother, male caregiver worker^b	Ref.	Ref.	1.27	1.09	1.47	1.21
Unmarried mother, male caregiver worker^b	Ref.	Ref.	(.85–1.92)	(.73–1.65)	(.99–2.18)	(.81–1.79)
Unmarried mother, male caregiver middle class^c	Ref.	Ref.	.99	.95	.93	.88
Unmarried mother, male caregiver middle class^c	Ref.	Ref.	(.60–.1.64)	(.58–.1.57)	(.56–1.52)	(.54–1.46)
Married mother, male caregiver middle class	Ref.	Ref.	.60	.63	.51	.56
Married mother, male caregiver middle class	Ref.	Ref.	(.55–.66)	(.56–.70)	(.46–.56)	(.51–.63)
Mother’s occupational status
Mother worker		Ref.		Ref.		Ref.
Mother middle class		Ref.		.70		.57
Mother middle class		Ref.		(.64–.78)		(.52–.64)

Maximum income level in adulthood is based on state taxation as recorded in the National Census at 5-year intervals between 1970 and 2000. For each recorded year, taxable incomes were log transformed and standardised separately for men and women
Model 1 adjusted for year of birth, sex, birth order, birth weight, mother’s age, length of gestation, evacuation abroad without parents during World War II, mother’s marital status (married/unmarried) and male caregiver’s highest attained occupational status during childhood (missing, worker or clerical)
Model 2 adjusted as in model 1 + mother’s occupational status
OR odds ratio, CI confidence intervals
^aThe mothers (n = 303) who have no indication of a male caregiver at any time point
^b-cThe mothers (n = 334) who were unmarried at the time of childbirth but the family had a male caregiver later on, according to the child welfare clinic or school records

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