Offspring Education and Parents’ Alzheimer's Knowledge

• In Event: 30860 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 3. Cognition, Mental Health, and Education in Aging

Abstract

Studies that examine the correlates of cognitive health among U.S. Hispanic older adults have not sufficiently explored the role of offspring resources. Given recent evidence of the importance of offspring education for older parents’ cognitive health, this study assesses the relationship between offspring education and parents’ cognitive trajectories. Data come from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2000-2018) and multi-level models are used to assess the relationship between adult children’s college education and parents’ cognitive trajectories for Hispanic parents over age 50. Additional analyses are conducted to understand whether the link between offspring schooling and parents’ cognitive trajectories differs for foreign- versus U.S.-born parents. Our results show that offspring college completion is associated with Hispanic parents’ initial cognitive scores but is not associated with parents’ cognitive trajectories. Additional findings indicate that the cognitive health of U.S.-born parents is more sensitive to children’s college completion than foreign-born parents. These results are robust to controls for children’s financial support to parents, parents’ depressive symptoms, and parents’ smoking and drinking behaviors, potential pathways to cognitive health. Children’s educational resources largely remain a hidden source of health disparities among older parents. Although our findings confirm this general relationship for Hispanic cognitive health, significant diversity within the Hispanic community also suggests that children’s resources may play different roles for U.S.- versus foreign-born parents. Future research is needed to clarify how nativity status and ethnicity jointly shape the relationship between family members’ resources and older adult cognitive health.

Authors

• Jenjira Yahirun, Bowling Green State University

• Jaycob Scott Applegate, Bowling Green State University

• Krysia Mossakowski, University of Hawaii at Manoa

• Mark D. Hayward, University of Texas-Austin