Racial Differences in How the Family Life Cycle Shapes Women’s Mortality

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

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on longevity among Caucasian and African-American women to investigate how key dimensions of the family life cycle shape later life mortality. Using data from the original mature women cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys, recently matched mortality data from the National Death Index and the Social Security Death Index, and flexible partial likelihood hazard models, we demonstrate the association between both the timing and sequencing of stages in the family life cycle and age at death. We show further how these associations differ by race and the mechanisms that carry these early experiences forward into older age.

Authors

• Melissa Hardy, Pennsylvania State University

• Adriana Marie Reyes, Pennsylvania State University

• Eliza K. Pavalko, Indiana University