Constructed SES Variables

We measured social origins of Add Health Study members from information about their families collected from Add Health participants’ parents at the Wave I interview, when participants were still in middle or high school. We examined reports of parental education, parental occupation, household income, and household receipt of public assistance. These four measures were correlated (r>0.19). We conducted principal components analysis of the measures to produce a factor score 2. The first principal component explained 53% of the variance. We used loadings on this component to compute the Social Origins Factor Score. Values were Z-transformed to have M=0 SD =1 for analysis.