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Children’s education and parents’ mortality – Do parents with highly educated children live longer?

Bode, Pauline LU (2023) EKHS02 20231
Department of Economic History
Abstract
While there exists a large literature on mortality inequalities by an individual’s level of education and other socioeconomic characteristics this thesis looks at the relationship between the children’s level of education and parents’ mortality, which has been relatively less studied. I use longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for the years 2004-2017 and conduct Cox proportional hazard regressions to assess how children’s level of education affects parents’ mortality risks. The included countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The results show that having a child with post-compulsory education is significantly... (More)
While there exists a large literature on mortality inequalities by an individual’s level of education and other socioeconomic characteristics this thesis looks at the relationship between the children’s level of education and parents’ mortality, which has been relatively less studied. I use longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for the years 2004-2017 and conduct Cox proportional hazard regressions to assess how children’s level of education affects parents’ mortality risks. The included countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The results show that having a child with post-compulsory education is significantly associated with lower mortality hazards for mothers and fathers even after controlling for the parent’s own level of education and income. The relationship is stronger at a lower old age (50-74 years) and also for less educated parents. A potential mechanism behind these results could be the impact children may have on parents’ health behaviours. In a cross-sectional analysis, it could be shown that children’s education is significantly associated with an increased likelihood that a parent has quit smoking. While the analyses in this thesis do not imply causality, they do reveal some interesting relationships. Lastly, the role of the type of welfare regime was assessed, though with inconclusive results. However, some differences by the gender of the parent could be found depending on the type of welfare regime, which may be interesting to explore in future research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Bode, Pauline LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
An analysis of the relationship between children’s educational attainment and parents’ longevity in Western Europe using longitudinal data from 2004-2017
course
EKHS02 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Mortality inequalities, socioeconomic gradient in health, children’s education, socioeconomic status, SES, demography
language
English
id
9126881
date added to LUP
2023-08-30 08:04:01
date last changed
2023-08-30 08:04:01
@misc{9126881,
  abstract     = {{While there exists a large literature on mortality inequalities by an individual’s level of education and other socioeconomic characteristics this thesis looks at the relationship between the children’s level of education and parents’ mortality, which has been relatively less studied. I use longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for the years 2004-2017 and conduct Cox proportional hazard regressions to assess how children’s level of education affects parents’ mortality risks. The included countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The results show that having a child with post-compulsory education is significantly associated with lower mortality hazards for mothers and fathers even after controlling for the parent’s own level of education and income. The relationship is stronger at a lower old age (50-74 years) and also for less educated parents. A potential mechanism behind these results could be the impact children may have on parents’ health behaviours. In a cross-sectional analysis, it could be shown that children’s education is significantly associated with an increased likelihood that a parent has quit smoking. While the analyses in this thesis do not imply causality, they do reveal some interesting relationships. Lastly, the role of the type of welfare regime was assessed, though with inconclusive results. However, some differences by the gender of the parent could be found depending on the type of welfare regime, which may be interesting to explore in future research.}},
  author       = {{Bode, Pauline}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Children’s education and parents’ mortality – Do parents with highly educated children live longer?}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}