Is Child Health Associated with Family Formation? Evidence from a Cohort of British Women

• In Event: 420 - Research Poster Session. Communicating Sociology

Abstract

Research has increasingly focused on the contribution of childhood health for the production and reproduction of socioeconomic and health inequalities. For reasons I offer below, childhood health may also shape family formation—marriage and fertility—which is inextricably tied to the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage. Marriage and fertility patterns allocate the distribution of disadvantage across generations in ways that can exacerbate or offset the already studied intergenerational linkages. In turn, these demographic processes shape the more-studied relations between social origins and child wellbeing. The presence (or absence) of parents and the stock of human/economic capital shape children’s early life environments and life chances. To investigate this connection between childhood health and family formation, I use data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to examine the links between a number of measures of childhood health (including birth weight, chronic conditions, and mental health) and fertility, marriage, and assortative mating.

Author

• Edward Berchick, Princeton University