@article{a746015f31c74f9e9559e62e55c37c79,
title = "Offspring educational attainment and older parentcognition in mexico",
abstract = "Population-level disparities in later-life cognitive health point to the importance of family resources. Although the bulk of prior work on the topic has established the directional flow of resources from parents to offspring, the linked lives perspective raises the question of how offspring resources could affect parental health as well. This study examines whether adult children{\textquoteright}s education influences older parents{\textquoteright} (aged 50+) cognitive health in Mexico, where schooling reforms have contributed to significant gains in the educational achievements of recent birth cohorts. Harnessing a change in compulsory school laws and applying an instrumental variables approach, we found that each year of offspring schooling was associated with higher overall cognition among parents but was less predictive across different cognitive functioning domains. More offspring schooling improved parents{\textquoteright} cognitive abilities in verbal learning, verbal fluency, and orientation, but not in visual scanning, visuospatial ability, or visual memory. The beneficial effects of offspring schooling on those cognitive domains are more salient for mothers than for fathers, suggesting potential gendered effects in the influence of offspring schooling. The results remained robust to controls for parent-child contact and geographic proximity, suggesting other avenues through which offspring education could affect parental health and a pathway for future research. Our findings contribute to growing research stressing the causal influence of familial educational attainment on population health.",
keywords = "Cognition, Education, Health, Intergenerational relationships, Mexico",
author = "Mingming Ma and Jenjira Yahirun and Joseph Saenz and Connor Sheehan",
note = "Funding Information: We are thankful to Rebeca Wong for comments on an earlier draft of this article. We also gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health from (grants T32 AG000037; K99 AG058799; R00 AG058799). Jenjira Yahirun acknowledges support from the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD050959). Mingming Ma is sponsored by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (Grant Number 2019110088) and Shanghai Pujiang Program (Grant Number 2019PJC047). The Mexican Health and Aging Study is partly sponsored by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (Grant Number NIH R01AG018016). The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Institute on Aging, the National Institutes of Health, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Bowling Green State University, Arizona State University, or the University of Southern California. Funding Information: Acknowledgments We are thankful to Rebeca Wong for comments on an earlier draft of this article. We also gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institutes of Health from (grants T32 AG000037; K99 AG058799; R00 AG058799). Jenjira Yahirun acknowledges support from the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD050959). Mingming Ma is sponsored by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (Grant Number 2019110088) and Shanghai Pujiang Program (Grant Number 2019PJC047). The Mexican Health and Aging Study is partly sponsored by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (Grant Number NIH R01AG018016). The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the views of the National Institute on Aging, the National Institutes of Health, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Bowling Green State University, Arizona State University, or the University of Southern California. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors.",
year = "2021",
month = feb,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1215/00703370-8931725",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "58",
pages = "75--109",
journal = "Demography",
issn = "0070-3370",
publisher = "Springer New York",
number = "1",
}