This project examines how adult children’s resources influence parents’ physical and psychological health in Mexico, a context where older adults often lack access to institutional resources and rely on kin, primarily children, as a main source of support. These themes are explored in two different studies. The first study uses data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (N=4,686) and finds that parents whose offspring emigrated to the United States experience worse outcomes with regards to sadness and loneliness compared to parents of offspring who did not migrate. Accounting for potential remittances from migrant offspring only slightly mitigates the negative effects of children’s U.S. migration. The second study uses data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (N=10,195) and finds that among parents, higher levels of offspring education are protective of parental mortality. In addition, children’s higher education prevents declines in parents’ physical health over time, but has no bearing on improvements in parents’ physical functioning among those who already had limitations. Combined, findings from this project illuminate ways in which children’s resources remain an important and potentially understudied source of health variation among older adults in Mexico.
Presented by:
Jenjira Yahirun (University of Hawaii)
Date & time:
June 22, 2015 2:00 pm - June 22, 2015 3:30 pm
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