Offspring Education and Parents' Cognitive Health: Nativity Differences among Older Hispanic Adults.

Background and objectives: 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 whether the relationship between offspring education and Hispanic parents' cognitive trajectories varies by nativity status.

Research design and methods: Data come from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2000-2018). Multi-level models are used to evaluate the relationship between adult children's college education and parents' cognitive trajectories for Hispanic parents over age 50. We also determine whether the link between offspring schooling and parents' cognitive trajectories differs in magnitude for foreign- versus native-born parents.

Results: The results show that offspring college completion is associated with Hispanic parents' initial cognitive scores, but not parents' cognitive score trajectories. Moreover, the cognitive health of native-born parents is more sensitive to children's college completion than foreign-born parents. These results are robust to controls for certain explanatory pathways, including offspring social support to parents, parents' depressive symptoms, and parents' health behaviors.

Discussion and implications: Children's educational resources remain a hidden source of health disparities among older parents. Although our findings confirm this general relationship for older Hispanic adults' cognitive health, significant diversity within the Hispanic community also suggests that children's resources may play different roles for native- 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.