Family Educational Configurations and Cognitive Functioning in Later Life

• In Event: Aging and the Life Course Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 1: Dementia and Cognitive Aging

Abstract

Individual-level education is a well-established predictor of cognitive health in later life, with a growing body of research demonstrating that education of close family members, particularly spouses and adult children, also shape cognitive outcomes through spillover effects. However, two gaps limit our understanding of these relationships. First, studies of spousal and offspring education spillovers have developed in isolation, with little research simultaneously considering the educational resources of both within broader family structures. Second, this literature excludes the growing population of “kinless” older adults who lack spouses and children, making it unclear whether having family with limited education is preferable for cognitive health compared to having no family at all.
Using data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2000–2022; N = 146,568 person-observations from 27,903 non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black respondents), this study examines the association between family educational configurations and cognitive functioning. A nine-category variable captures combinations of spouse/partner and offspring availability alongside their college attainment, with kinless older adults as the reference group. Growth curve models estimate differences in cognitive functioning across configurations, with stratified analyses by gender and race.
Preliminary results challenge the assumption that any family is better than no family. For men, family availability is positively associated with cognitive functioning regardless of family members' education. For women, only configurations with college-educated kin show positive associations; women whose family members lack college education demonstrate cognitive functioning similar to or worse than kinless women. Race-stratified analyses suggest that offspring education is more salient for Black older adults' cognition, while both spousal and offspring education matter for White older adults. Findings underscore how inequalities in kin availability and family educational resources shape cognitive health in later life.

Author

• Jaycob Scott Applegate, Bowling Green State University