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Family size and old-age wellbeing: effects of the fertility transition in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

CARLOS DÍAZ-VENEGAS ,
JOSEPH L. SÁENZ  and
REBECA WONG
CARLOS DÍAZ-VENEGAS*
Affiliation:
Rehabilitation Sciences Academic Division and Research Center, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA.
JOSEPH L. SÁENZ
Affiliation:
Preventive Medicine and Community Health, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA.
REBECA WONG
Affiliation:
Sealy Center on Aging, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Carlos Díaz-Venegas, Konrad-Zuse-Str. 1, Rostock, Germany, 18057. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The present study aims to determine how family size affects psycho-social, economic and health wellbeing in old age differently across two cohorts with declining fertility. The data are from the 2012 Mexican Health and Ageing Study (MHAS) including respondents aged 50+ (N = 13,102). Poisson (standard and zero-inflated) and logistic regressions are used to model determinants of wellbeing in old age: psycho-social (depressive symptoms), economic (consumer durables and insurance) and health (chronic conditions). In the younger cohort, having fewer children is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and chronic conditions, and better economic wellbeing. For the older cohort, having fewer children is associated with lower economic wellbeing and higher odds of being uninsured. Lower fertility benefited the younger cohort (born after 1937), whereas the older cohort (born in 1937 or earlier) benefited from lower fertility only in chronic conditions. Further research is needed to continue exploring the old-age effects of the fertility transition.

Keywords

fertility transitionMexicoelderly wellbeingnumber of childrenMHAS
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , March 2017 , pp. 495 - 516
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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