Adult Children’s Influence on Parental Well-Being

Abstract

Population aging and widening disparities in healthy aging have increased attention to the social determinants of health and healthy aging. Unfortunately, our emphasis on the social determinants of health in adulthood has lacked the same intergenerational lens that is prominent in research focused earlier in the life course. Our research finds that having a college-educated adult child benefits parents’ health and well-being, particularly for disadvantaged parents. Although parental characteristics like education and family ties help to explain some of this effect, our and emerging work suggests that parents’ and children’s lives are inextricably linked, even after children have reached adulthood.