Analysing Cross-Cohort Differences in Socioeconomic Position and Mental Health Using Latent Class Analysis

Early life socioeconomic disadvantage is a robust predictor of poor mental health, particularly for children and adolescents. However, there are numerous indicators of socioeconomic position such as income, education, or social class, which are differentially related to specific mental health outcomes. Thus, findings regarding socioeconomic inequalities in mental health vary significantly. Using multiple socioeconomic indicators allows researchers to investigate the multi-dimensionality of socioeconomic position as a construct, but presents challenges for regression-based analyses following mutual adjustment. Person centred approaches, such as latent class analysis, can be used to identify distinct patterns of socioeconomic indicators and predict mental health outcomes. Yet, in addition to the heterogeneity caused by disparate indicators, evidence also suggests that the relationship between socioeconomic position and mental health are changing over time. In order to conduct valid comparisons across cohorts, retrospective harmonisation is necessary to ensure disparate measures were not interpreted differently by the cohorts. This research aims to conduct cross-cohort comparisons using harmonised adolescent mental health outcomes and latent class models in three British birth cohorts.