IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v75y2020i7pe129-e140..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Association Between Spousal Education and Cognitive Ability Among Older Mexican Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph L SaenzPhD
  • Christopher R BeamPhD
  • Elizabeth M ZelinskiPhD
  • Anna ZajacovaPhD

Abstract

ObjectivesEducation and cognition are closely associated, yet the role of spousal education is not well understood. We estimate the independent effects of own and spousal education on cognitive ability in late-life in Mexico, a developing country experiencing rapid aging.MethodWe analyzed 4,017 married dyads (age 50+) from the 2012 Mexican Health and Aging Study. Cognitive ability for married adults was a factor score from a single factor model. Using seemingly unrelated regression, we test whether spousal education influences older adults’ cognitive ability, whether associations are explained by couple-level socioeconomic position, health and health behaviors, and social support, and whether associations differed by gender.ResultsEducation and cognitive ability were correlated within couples. Higher spousal education was associated with better cognitive ability. Associations between spousal education and cognitive ability were independent of own education, did not differ by gender, and remained significant even after adjustment for couple-level socioeconomic position, health and health behaviors, and perceived social support.DiscussionIn addition to own education, spousal education was associated with better cognitive ability, even at relatively low levels of education. We discuss the possibility that spousal education may improve cognition via transmission of knowledge and mutually reinforcing cognitively stimulating environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph L SaenzPhD & Christopher R BeamPhD & Elizabeth M ZelinskiPhD & Anna ZajacovaPhD, 2020. "The Association Between Spousal Education and Cognitive Ability Among Older Mexican Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(7), pages 129-140.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:7:p:e129-e140.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbaa002
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:7:p:e129-e140.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.