IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v51y2014i4p1271-1293.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Schooling of Offspring and the Survival of Parents

Author

Listed:
  • Esther Friedman
  • Robert Mare

Abstract

Contemporary stratification research on developed societies usually views the intergenerational transmission of educational advantage as a one-way effect from parent to child. However, parents’ investment in their offspring’s schooling may yield significant returns for parents themselves in later life. For instance, well-educated offspring have greater knowledge of health and technology to share with their parents and more financial means to provide for them than do their less-educated counterparts. We use data from the 1992–2006 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine whether adult offspring’s educational attainments are associated with parents’ survival in the United States. We show that adult offspring’s educational attainments have independent effects on their parents’ mortality, even after controlling for parents’ own socioeconomic resources. This relationship is more pronounced for deaths that are linked to behavioral factors: most notably, chronic lower respiratory disease and lung cancer. Furthermore, at least part of the association between offspring’s schooling and parents’ survival may be explained by parents’ health behaviors, including smoking and physical activity. These findings suggest that one way to influence the health of the elderly is through their offspring. To harness the full value of schooling for health, then, a family and multigenerational perspective is needed. Copyright Population Association of America 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Esther Friedman & Robert Mare, 2014. "The Schooling of Offspring and the Survival of Parents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(4), pages 1271-1293, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:51:y:2014:i:4:p:1271-1293
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-014-0303-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13524-014-0303-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-014-0303-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:revinw:v:43:y:1997:i:4:p:423-48 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Mark Hayward & Bridget Gorman, 2004. "The long arm of childhood: The influence of early-life social conditions on men’s mortality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(1), pages 87-107, February.
    3. Bonsang, Eric, 2009. "Does informal care from children to their elderly parents substitute for formal care in Europe?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 143-154, January.
    4. Samuel Preston & Haidong Wang, 2006. "Sex mortality differences in The United States: The role of cohort smoking patterns," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(4), pages 631-646, November.
    5. Escobedo, L.G. & Peddicord, J.P., 1996. "Smoking prevalence in US birth cohorts: The influence of gender and education," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 86(2), pages 231-236.
    6. Duncan, Craig & Jones, Kelvyn & Moon, Graham, 1999. "Smoking and deprivation: are there neighbourhood effects?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 497-505, February.
    7. Janice Compton & Robert A. Pollak, 2009. "Proximity and Coresidence of Adult Children and their Parents: Description and Correlates," Working Papers wp215, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    8. Ken Smith & Cathleen Zick, 1994. "Linked lives, dependent demise? Survival analysis of husbands and wives," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(1), pages 81-93, February.
    9. Jenifer Hamil-Luker & Angela O’rand, 2007. "Gender differences in the link between childhood socioeconomic conditions and heart attack risk in adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(1), pages 137-158, February.
    10. Jenny Torssander, 2013. "From Child to Parent? The Significance of Children’s Education for Their Parents’ Longevity," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 637-659, April.
    11. James Smith & Raynard Kington, 1997. "Demographic and economic correlates of health in old age," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(1), pages 159-170, February.
    12. Elwert, F. & Christakis, N.A., 2008. "The effect of widowhood on mortality by the causes of death of both spouses," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(11), pages 2092-2098.
    13. Lillard, L.A. & Waite, L.J., 1993. "'Til Death Do Us Part: Marital Disruption and Mortality," Papers 93-10, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
    14. Jersey Liang & John F. McCarthy & Arvind Jain & Neal Krause & Joan M. Bennett & Shengzu Gu, 2000. "Socioeconomic Gradient in Old Age Mortality in Wuhan, China," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 55(4), pages 222-233.
    15. John Giles & Ren Mu, 2007. "Elderly parent health and the migration decisions of adult children: Evidence from rural China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(2), pages 265-288, May.
    16. Scott Lynch, 2003. "Cohort and life-course patterns in the relationship between education and health: A hierarchical approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(2), pages 309-331, May.
    17. Sherry Glied & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2008. "Technological innovation and inequality in health," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(3), pages 741-761, August.
    18. Robert F. Schoeni, 1997. "Private Interhousehold Transfers Of Money And Time: New Empirical Evidence," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(4), pages 423-448, December.
    19. Zachary Zimmer & Albert I. Hermalin & Hui-Sheng Lin, 2002. "Whose Education Counts? The Added Impact of Adult-Child Education on Physical Functioning of Older Taiwanese," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(1), pages 23-32.
    20. Kenneth Couch & Mary Daly & Douglas Wolf, 1999. "Time? money? both? the allocation of resources to older Parents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(2), pages 219-232, May.
    21. Luo, Ye & Hawkley, Louise C. & Waite, Linda J. & Cacioppo, John T., 2012. "Loneliness, health, and mortality in old age: A national longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(6), pages 907-914.
    22. Berkman, Lisa F. & Glass, Thomas & Brissette, Ian & Seeman, Teresa E., 2000. "From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 843-857, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dustin Brown & Robert Hummer & Mark Hayward, 2014. "The Importance of Spousal Education for the Self-Rated Health of Married Adults in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(1), pages 127-151, February.
    2. Nan Jiang, 2019. "Adult Children’s Education and Later-Life Health of Parents in China: The Intergenerational Effects of Human Capital Investment," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 257-278, August.
    3. Adriana Lleras-Muney & Joseph Price & Dahai Yue, 2020. "The Association Between Educational Attainment and Longevity using Individual Level Data from the 1940 Census," NBER Working Papers 27514, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Shor, Eran & Roelfs, David J. & Bugyi, Paul & Schwartz, Joseph E., 2012. "Meta-analysis of marital dissolution and mortality: Reevaluating the intersection of gender and age," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 46-59.
    5. Masters, Ryan K. & Link, Bruce G. & Phelan, Jo C., 2015. "Trends in education gradients of ‘preventable’ mortality: A test of fundamental cause theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 19-28.
    6. Bakshi, Sanjeev & Pathak, Prasanta, 2010. "Social context and the burden of ill health among the older adults in India," MPRA Paper 40463, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2017. "Spillovers between siblings and from offspring to parents are understudied: A review and future directions for research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 56-61.
    8. Ma, Mingming, 2019. "Does children's education matter for parents’ health and cognition? Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 222-240.
    9. Cinzia Di Novi & Rowena Jacobs & Matteo Migheli, 2013. "The quality of life of female informal caregivers: from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea," Working Papers 084cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    10. Liliya Leopold & Thomas Leopold, 2016. "Education and Health across Lives and Cohorts: A Study of Cumulative Advantage in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 835, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    11. Shen, Ke & Zeng, Yi, 2014. "Direct and indirect effects of childhood conditions on survival and health among male and female elderly in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 207-214.
    12. Espinosa, Javier & Evans, William N., 2013. "Maternal bereavement: The heightened mortality of mothers after the death of a child," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 371-381.
    13. Hui Zheng & Jonathan Dirlam & Paola Echave, 2021. "Divergent Trends in the Effects of Early Life Factors on Adult Health," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1119-1148, October.
    14. Luo, Ye & Zhang, Zhenmei & Gu, Danan, 2015. "Education and mortality among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 134-142.
    15. Teresa Bago d'Uva & Maarten Lindeboom & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2011. "Education‐related inequity in healthcare with heterogeneous reporting of health," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 174(3), pages 639-664, July.
    16. Ryan Masters & Robert Hummer & Daniel Powers & Audrey Beck & Shih-Fan Lin & Brian Finch, 2014. "Long-Term Trends in Adult Mortality for U.S. Blacks and Whites: An Examination of Period- and Cohort-Based Changes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2047-2073, December.
    17. Tetyana Pudrovska & Benedicta Anikputa, 2014. "Editor's choice Early-Life Socioeconomic Status and Mortality in Later Life: An Integration of Four Life-Course Mechanisms," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(3), pages 451-460.
    18. Leonardo Becchetti & Pierluigi Conzo & Fabio Pisani, 2018. "Education and health in Europe," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(12), pages 1362-1377, March.
    19. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Fink, Günther, 2018. "Children’s education and parental old age survival – Quasi-experimental evidence on the intergenerational effects of human capital investment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 76-89.
    20. Thomas Leoni & Rainer Eppel, 2013. "Women's Work and Family Profiles over the Lifecourse and their Subsequent Health Outcomes – Evidence for Europe. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 28," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46889, August.

    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:spr:demogr:v:51:y:2014:i:4:p:1271-1293. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.