IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v53y2016i5d10.1007_s13524-016-0502-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Offspring Socioeconomic Status and Parent Mortality Within a Historical Population

Author

Listed:
  • Zachary Zimmer

    (Mount Saint Vincent University)

  • Heidi A. Hanson

    (University of Utah)

  • Ken R. Smith

    (University of Utah)

Abstract

Considering a network approach to health determinants, we test the hypothesis that benefits of high socioeconomic status (SES) may be transmitted up the generational ladder from offspring to parents. Studies that examine own SES and own health outcomes, or SES of parents and outcomes of young or adolescent children, are common. Those that investigate SES of offspring and their association with parental health are rare. Employing data from a historical population of individuals extracted from a comprehensive population database that links demographic and vital records across generations, this study tests the hypothesis that higher offspring SES associates with lower parental mortality after controlling for parental SES. The sample includes 29,972 individuals born between 1864 and 1883 whose offspring were born between 1886 and 1920. SES is operationalized using Nam-Powers occupational status scores divided into quartiles and a category for farmers. Models assess mortality risk after age 40. Included is a test for whether effects are proportional across parents who died younger and older. Estimated life expectancies across categories of offspring SES conditioned on parental SES are calculated to illustrate specifically how differences in SES relate to differences in years lived. Results indicate a longevity penalty for those whose offspring have low SES and a longevity dividend for those with high-SES offspring. The influence of offspring attributes on well-being of parents points to fluid and myriad linkages between generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Zachary Zimmer & Heidi A. Hanson & Ken R. Smith, 2016. "Offspring Socioeconomic Status and Parent Mortality Within a Historical Population," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1583-1603, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:53:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1007_s13524-016-0502-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-016-0502-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13524-016-0502-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-016-0502-x?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. Adler, Nancy & Singh-Manoux, Archana & Schwartz, Joseph & Stewart, Judith & Matthews, Karen & Marmot, Michael G., 2008. "Social status and health: A comparison of British civil servants in Whitehall-II with European- and African-Americans in CARDIA," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 1034-1045, March.
    2. Kristenson, M. & Eriksen, H. R. & Sluiter, J. K. & Starke, D. & Ursin, H., 2004. "Psychobiological mechanisms of socioeconomic differences in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1511-1522, April.
    3. 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.
    4. Fukuda, Yoshiharu & Nakamura, Keiko & Takano, Takehito, 2004. "Municipal socioeconomic status and mortality in Japan: sex and age differences, and trends in 1973-1998," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(12), pages 2435-2445, December.
    5. Geraldine Mineau & James Trussell, 1982. "A specification of marital fertility by parents’ age, age atmarriage and marital duration," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 19(3), pages 335-349, August.
    6. Zachary Zimmer & Linda Martin & Mary Ofstedal & Yi-Li Chuang, 2007. "Education of adult children and mortality of their elderly parents in Taiwan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(2), pages 289-305, May.
    7. 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.
    8. Randall Kuhn & Bethany Everett & Rachel Silvey, 2011. "The Effects of Children’s Migration on Elderly Kin’s Health: A Counterfactual Approach," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 183-209, February.
    9. Sundquist, Jan & Johansson, Sven-Erik, 1997. "Indicators of socio-economic position and their relation to mortality in Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(12), pages 1757-1766, December.
    10. Smith, Ken R. & Mineau, Geraldine P. & Garibotti, Gilda & Kerber, Richard, 2009. "Effects of childhood and middle-adulthood family conditions on later-life mortality: Evidence from the Utah Population Database, 1850-2002," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1649-1658, May.
    11. Michael D. Hurd & Daniel McFadden & Angela Merrill, 2001. "Predictors of Mortality among the Elderly," NBER Chapters, in: Themes in the Economics of Aging, pages 171-198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Douglas Anderton & Noriko Tsuya & Lee Bean & Geraldine Mineau, 1987. "Intergenerational transmission of relative fertility and life course patterns," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 24(4), pages 467-480, November.
    13. Olausson, Petra Otterblad, 1991. "Mortality among the elderly in Sweden by social class," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 437-440, January.
    14. Braveman, P.A. & Cubbin, C. & Egerter, S. & Williams, D.R. & Pamuk, E., 2010. "Socioeconomic disparities in health in the united States: What the patterns tell us," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(S1), pages 186-196.
    15. Sudano, Joseph J. & Baker, David W., 2006. "Explaining US racial/ethnic disparities in health declines and mortality in late middle age: The roles of socioeconomic status, health behaviors, and health insurance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 909-922, February.
    16. Heidi Hanson & Ken Smith & Zachary Zimmer, 2015. "Reproductive History and Later-Life Comorbidity Trajectories: A Medicare-Linked Cohort Study From the Utah Population Database," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(6), pages 2021-2049, December.
    17. Lantz, Paula M. & Lynch, John W. & House, James S. & Lepkowski, James M. & Mero, Richard P. & Musick, Marc A. & Williams, David R., 2001. "Socioeconomic disparities in health change in a longitudinal study of US adults: the role of health-risk behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 29-40, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chi-Tsun Chiu, 2019. "Living arrangements and disability-free life expectancy in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, February.
    2. Kieron Barclay & Martin Kolk, 2019. "Parity and Mortality: An Examination of Different Explanatory Mechanisms Using Data on Biological and Adoptive Parents," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(1), pages 63-85, February.
    3. Jiang, Nan & Kaushal, Neeraj, 2020. "How children's education affects caregiving: Evidence from parent’s last years of life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Joseph Wolfe & Shawn Bauldry & Melissa Hardy & Eliza Pavalko, 2018. "Multigenerational socioeconomic attainments and mortality among older men: An adjacent generations approach," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(26), pages 719-752.

    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. Torres, Jacqueline M. & Yahirun, Jenjira J. & Sheehan, Connor & Ma, Mingming & Sáenz, Joseph, 2021. "Adult child socio-economic status disadvantage and cognitive decline among older parents in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    2. Lundborg, Petter & Majlesi, Kaveh, 2018. "Intergenerational transmission of human capital: Is it a one-way street?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 206-220.
    3. Samuli Knüpfer & Elias Rantapuska & Matti Sarvimäki, 2023. "Social Interaction in the Family: Evidence from Investors’ Security Holdings," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(4), pages 1297-1327.
    4. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_025 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Yanna Ma & Zhanli Ma & Moqin Yang, 2022. "Does Adult Children’s Education Increase Parents’ Longevity in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-15, November.
    6. 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.
    7. Yahirun, Jenjira J. & Sheehan, Connor M. & Hayward, Mark D., 2017. "Adult children's education and changes to parents' physical health in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 93-101.
    8. Ning Wei & Lülin Zhou & Wenhao Huang, 2022. "Does an upward intergenerational educational spillover effect exist? The effect of children’s education on Chinese parents’ health," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 69-89, March.
    9. Torssander, Jenny, 2014. "Adult children's socioeconomic positions and their parents' mortality: A comparison of education, occupational class, and income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 148-156.
    10. Li, Yaoyue & Wang, Guixin & Li, Guofeng, 2021. "Educational attainment of offspring and obesity among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    11. Lei, Lei & Yu, Dandan & Zhou, Yang, 2023. "Better educated children, better Internet-connected elderly parents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    12. Joseph Wolfe & Shawn Bauldry & Melissa Hardy & Eliza Pavalko, 2018. "Multigenerational socioeconomic attainments and mortality among older men: An adjacent generations approach," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(26), pages 719-752.
    13. 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.
    14. Zhenhua Zheng & Ning Sun & Liu Yang & Wanting Liu & Yingchen Lu & Yusu Chu & Hong Chen, 2023. "The socioeconomic status of adult children, intergenerational support, and the well-being of Chinese older adults," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Jiang, Nan & Kaushal, Neeraj, 2020. "How children's education affects caregiving: Evidence from parent’s last years of life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    16. 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.
    17. Knüpfer, Samuli & Rantapuska, Elias & Sarvimäki, Matti, 2017. "Social interaction in the family: Evidence from investors’ security holdings," Research Discussion Papers 25/2017, Bank of Finland.
    18. Cui, Ying & Liu, Hong & Zhao, Liqiu, 2021. "Protective effect of adult children's education on parental survival in China: Gender differences and underlying mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    19. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Harling, Guy, 2017. "Offspring schooling associated with increased parental survival in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 149-157.
    20. Sirois, Catherine, 2020. "The strain of sons' incarceration on mothers’ health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    21. Chi-Tsun Chiu, 2019. "Living arrangements and disability-free life expectancy in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, February.

    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:53:y:2016:i:5:d:10.1007_s13524-016-0502-x. 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.