TY - JOUR
T1 - Depression in Later Life
T2 - The Role of Adult Children's College Education for Older Parents' Mental Health in the United States
AU - Yahirun, Jenjira J.
AU - Sheehan, Connor M.
AU - Mossakowski, Krysia N.
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by the National Institute on Aging Training Grant (T32 AG000037). Funding for the Health and Retirement Survey comes from the National Institute on Aging (NIA U01AG009740) and the Social Security Administration.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America 2018.
PY - 2020/1/14
Y1 - 2020/1/14
N2 - Objectives: Research on the socioeconomic gradient in mental health links disadvantaged family background with subsequent symptoms of depression, demonstrating the "downstream" effect of parental resources on children's mental health. This study takes a different approach by evaluating the "upstream" influence of adult children's educational attainment on parents' depressive symptoms. Methods: Using longitudinal data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (N = 106,517 person-years), we examine whether children's college attainment influences their parents' mental health in later life and whether this association increases with parental age. We also assess whether the link between children's college completion and parents' depression differs by parents' own education. Results: Parents with children who completed college have significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than parents without college-educated children, although the gap between parents narrows with age. In addition, at baseline, parents with less than a high school education were more positively affected by their children's college completion than parents who themselves had a college education, a finding which lends support to theories of resource substitution. Discussion: Offspring education is an overlooked resource that can contribute to mental health disparities among older adults in a country with unequal access to college educations.
AB - Objectives: Research on the socioeconomic gradient in mental health links disadvantaged family background with subsequent symptoms of depression, demonstrating the "downstream" effect of parental resources on children's mental health. This study takes a different approach by evaluating the "upstream" influence of adult children's educational attainment on parents' depressive symptoms. Methods: Using longitudinal data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (N = 106,517 person-years), we examine whether children's college attainment influences their parents' mental health in later life and whether this association increases with parental age. We also assess whether the link between children's college completion and parents' depression differs by parents' own education. Results: Parents with children who completed college have significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than parents without college-educated children, although the gap between parents narrows with age. In addition, at baseline, parents with less than a high school education were more positively affected by their children's college completion than parents who themselves had a college education, a finding which lends support to theories of resource substitution. Discussion: Offspring education is an overlooked resource that can contribute to mental health disparities among older adults in a country with unequal access to college educations.
KW - Depression
KW - Intergenerational relations
KW - Life course analysis
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U2 - 10.1093/geronb/gby135
DO - 10.1093/geronb/gby135
M3 - Article
C2 - 30412237
AN - SCOPUS:85065387199
SN - 1079-5014
VL - 75
SP - 389
EP - 402
JO - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
JF - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
IS - 2
ER -