How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival?
Abstract Previous research has investigated several different aspects of the relationship between having a child and parental mortality. One aspect of research that has been neglected until now is the age of the child. If children have an effect on parental mortality, this is likely to change as the...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Genus |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s41118-023-00190-0 |
| _version_ | 1797836543889506304 |
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| author | Sven Drefahl Eleonora Mussino |
| author_facet | Sven Drefahl Eleonora Mussino |
| author_sort | Sven Drefahl |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Previous research has investigated several different aspects of the relationship between having a child and parental mortality. One aspect of research that has been neglected until now is the age of the child. If children have an effect on parental mortality, this is likely to change as they grow up. We apply hazard regression models to longitudinal Swedish register data of the total population for men and women separately. Adjusting for a variety of control variables, we find that parents with younger children experience a substantive mortality advantage compared to parents—of the same age—who have older children. The mortality advantage decreases gradually as the age of the youngest child increases. Robustness checks confirm that this result cannot be explained by differences in the parent’s age and parental age at first birth. Childless women and men of the same age experience the highest mortality. Additional models for different causes of death suggest that selection, behavioral changes, and unobserved protective effects contribute to this pattern. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T15:11:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5a07e126d39547c1ba0a273110c0ac22 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2035-5556 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T15:11:43Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Genus |
| spelling | doaj.art-5a07e126d39547c1ba0a273110c0ac222023-04-30T11:10:21ZengSpringerOpenGenus2035-55562023-04-0179112010.1186/s41118-023-00190-0How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival?Sven Drefahl0Eleonora Mussino1Department of Sociology, Stockholm UniversityDepartment of Sociology, Stockholm UniversityAbstract Previous research has investigated several different aspects of the relationship between having a child and parental mortality. One aspect of research that has been neglected until now is the age of the child. If children have an effect on parental mortality, this is likely to change as they grow up. We apply hazard regression models to longitudinal Swedish register data of the total population for men and women separately. Adjusting for a variety of control variables, we find that parents with younger children experience a substantive mortality advantage compared to parents—of the same age—who have older children. The mortality advantage decreases gradually as the age of the youngest child increases. Robustness checks confirm that this result cannot be explained by differences in the parent’s age and parental age at first birth. Childless women and men of the same age experience the highest mortality. Additional models for different causes of death suggest that selection, behavioral changes, and unobserved protective effects contribute to this pattern.https://doi.org/10.1186/s41118-023-00190-0MortalityAgeParental survivalFamilyParitySelection |
| spellingShingle | Sven Drefahl Eleonora Mussino How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival? Genus Mortality Age Parental survival Family Parity Selection |
| title | How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival? |
| title_full | How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival? |
| title_fullStr | How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival? |
| title_short | How does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival? |
| title_sort | how does the age of the youngest child affect parental survival |
| topic | Mortality Age Parental survival Family Parity Selection |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s41118-023-00190-0 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT svendrefahl howdoestheageoftheyoungestchildaffectparentalsurvival AT eleonoramussino howdoestheageoftheyoungestchildaffectparentalsurvival |