Is Living with Both Parents in Childhood Beneficial? Effects on Mortality by Later Marital Status

• In Event: 054 - Regular Session. Health Behavior, Family, and Mortality

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that living with both parents as the indicator of family structure in childhood has a positive effect on health and survival over the life course. Less is, however, known how the effect is moderated by one’s own family structure in adulthood. The purposes of this study are to examine if family structure in childhood is associated with mortality risk and how the association varies by marital status in adulthood. We analyze the hazard of death in 18 waves of the General Social Survey from 1978 through 2002 after linking the data to death certificate data from 1979 through 2008 from the National Death Index. The findings show that living with both biological parents in childhood reduces the hazard of death significantly, with the effect partially mediated through better educational achievements and economic resources in adulthood. The family structure advantage in childhood, however, switches to a disadvantage when one’s marriage is involuntarily terminated by spousal loss. The findings suggest that spending one’s childhood with both parents may have a deleterious effect on survival by increasing vulnerability to marital disruptions when people experience an unwanted life event such as spousal loss.

Authors

• Min-Ah Lee, Chung-Ang University

• Jibum Kim, Sungkyunkwan University

• Jeong-han Kang, Yonsei University