Intergenerational Reproduction of Social Class and Smoking

• In Event: 2184 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Social Mobility and Intergenerational Processes

Abstract

This study examines the associations between parental and adult child smoking and considers how they may be modified by adult child’s socioeconomic attainment and mobility. Using data collected by the Panel Study of Income Dynamics in 1968, 1986, and 2011, I find that having a smoking parent is associated with a 9 to 10 percentage point increase in the probability of smoking as an adult in 1986 and 2011, respectively. The parental treatment effect is attenuated to 7 and 5 percentage points and no longer statistically significant in 2011 after accounting for the adult child’s own socioeconomic attainment. Children of 1968 parents interviewed in 1986 are more likely to reproduce their parents’ smoking behavior if they maintain their parents’ economic position or are downwardly mobile than if they are upwardly mobile. The largest effect of parents’ smoking is observed for the 1986 adult children who are downwardly mobile.

Author

• Lucie Kalousova, Nuffield College, University of Oxford