Validation of the Stimulant Use Motives Scale and Assessment of Its Associations with Psychosocial Functioning and Sexual Health in U.S. Men Who Have Sex with Men.

Does cumulative advantage, that is, advantage begetting more advantage, diffuse across domains over the life course? For instance, do already wealthy individuals accumulate more wealth and, at the same time, experience more advantageous health changes over time? Answering such questions is fundamental for research on the life course and social inequality, as it helps understand how multidimensional advantage unfolds over individuals’ lives. Theoretically, the life course perspective emphasizes multidimensionality, where different life course dimensions, such as work and family, are interwoven (; ). Building on this premise, cumulative inequality theory proposes that advantages gained in one domain can extend to others (), reflecting the capacity of versatile resources, such as wealth, to function across domains. Despite its theoretical appeal, however, the notion of diffusion across domains remains conceptually underspecified, leaving open questions about how advantages translate from one domain to another. Furthermore, expectations about the diffusion of advantage are rarely subjected to empirical testing. Research on cumulative advantage and inequality across the life course is mainly focused on one outcome domain and its subdomains, for example, health () and chronic diseases and functional limitations (). When multiple domains of advantage are studied, the focus is usually on how one (often categorical) domain of advantage, such as education, moderates cumulative advantage in another domain, such as income (). Such moderation is conceptually distinct from the diffusion of advantage across domains because of its unidirectional, single-outcome focus.