Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T01:13:37.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

INTERGENERATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS AND CHILD OBESITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2015

Antwan Jones
Antwan Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, The George Washington University, Washington, USA
*
1Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This study used US National Longitudinal Study of Youth data to explore how exposure to different socioeconomic conditions (proxied by maternal education) before birth can shape child weight. Using endogenous selection regression models, the findings suggest that educational selectivity affects weight gain. Mothers whose mothers graduated from high school were more likely to complete high school, and mothers reared in an intact family had higher levels of education. However, mothers who had given birth as a teenager had the same educational outcomes as mothers who gave birth in their post-teenage years. Based on this intergenerational educational selectivity, caretaking (e.g. breast-feeding) was found to be associated with a lower child body mass index (BMI), while negative maternal characteristics (e.g. mothers with high BMIs) were associated with higher child BMIs. Thus, educational selectivity influences child health through values passed on to the child and the lifestyle in which the child is reared. Maternal education may be tied to parenting, which relates to child obesity risk.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , July 2016 , pp. 557 - 576
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Astone, N. M. & McLanahan, S. S. (1991) Family structure, parental practices and high school completion. American Sociological Review 56(1), 309–320.Google Scholar
Bao, J. J., Desai, V., Christoffel, K. K., Smith-Ray, P. & Nagle, A. P. (2009) Prevalence of obesity among children and/or grandchildren of adult bariatric surgery patients. Obesity Surgery 19(7), 833–839.Google Scholar
Baranowski, T., Cullen, K. W., Nicklas, T., Thompson, D. & Baranowski, J. (2003) Are current health behavior change models helpful in guiding prevention of weight gain efforts? Obesity Research 11(s10), 23S–43S.Google Scholar
Becker, G. S. (1981) A Treatise on the Family. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Belsky, J. (2005) Differential susceptibility to rearing influence: an evolutionary hypothesis and some evidence. In Ellis, B. J. & Bjorklund, D. F. (eds), Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development. Guilford Press, New York. pp. 139–163.Google Scholar
Benasich, A. A. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1996) Maternal attitudes and knowledge of child-rearing: associations with family and child outcomes. Child Development 67(3), 1186–1205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bianchi, S. M., Subaiya, L. & Kahn, J. R. (1999) The gender gap in the economic well-being of nonresident fathers and custodial mothers. Demography 36(2), 195–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biblarz, T. J. & Raftery, A. E. (1999) Family structure, educational attainment, and socioeconomic success: rethinking the “pathology of matriarchy”. American Journal of Sociology 105(2), 321–365.Google Scholar
Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (2002) The inheritance of inequality. Journal of Economic Perspectives 16(3), 3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R. H. & Corwyn, R. F. (2002) Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology 53(1), 371–399.Google Scholar
Braveman, P. A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Chideya, S., Marchi, K., Metzler, M. & Posner, S. (2005) Socioeconomic status in health research: one size does not fit all. Journal of the American Medical Association 294(22), 2879–2888.Google Scholar
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014) The NLSY79 Sample: An Introduction. URL: https://nlsinfo.org/content/cohorts/nlsy79/intro-to-the-sample/nlsy79-sample-introduction (accessed 29th August 2014).Google Scholar
Carmichael, S. L., Yang, W., Herring, A., Abrams, B. & Shaw, G. M. (2007) Maternal food insecurity is associated with increased risk of certain birth defects. Journal of Nutrition 137(9), 2087–2092.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chadwick, L. & Solon, G. (2002) Intergenerational income mobility among daughters. American Economic Review 92(1), 335–344.Google Scholar
Chiburis, R. & Lokshin, M. (2007) Maximum likelihood and two-step estimation of an ordered-probit selection model. Stata Journal 7(2), 167–182.Google Scholar
Conger, R. D., Belsky, J. & Capaldi, D. M. (2009) The intergenerational transmission of parenting: closing comments for the special section. Developmental Psychology 45(5), 1276–1283.Google Scholar
Conger, R. D. & Donnellan, M. B. (2007) An interactionist perspective on the socioeconomic context of human development. Annual Review of Psychology 58(1), 175–199.Google Scholar
Costa, F. S., del Pino, D. L. & Friedman, R. (2011) Caregivers’ attitudes and practices: influence on childhood body weight. Journal of Biosocial Science 43(3), 369–378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Currie, J. (2009) Commentary: will the ‘long arm of the family’ have legs? International Journal of Epidemiology 38(3), 744–745.Google Scholar
DeMaris, A. (2004) Regression with Social Data: Modeling Continous and Limited Response Variables. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.Google Scholar
Dressler, W. W., Oths, K. S. & Gravlee, C. C. (2005) Race and ethnicity in public health research: models to explain health disparities. Annual Review of Anthropology 34(2), 231–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrenreich, B. (2001) Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America. Metropolitan Books, New York.Google Scholar
Elder, J. P., Arredondo, E. M., Campbell, N., Baquero, B., Duerksen, S., Ayala, G. et al. (2010) Individual, family, and community environmental correlates to obesity in Latino elementary school children. Journal of School Health 80(1), 20–30.Google Scholar
Espenshade, T. J. (1979) The economic consequences of divorce. Journal of Marriage and the Family 41(3), 615–625.Google Scholar
Fertig, A., Glomm, G. & Tchernis, R. (2009) The connection between maternal employment and childhood obesity: inspecting the mechanisms. Review of Economics of the Household 7(3), 227–255.Google Scholar
Flegal, K. M. & Cole, T. J. (2013) Construction of LMS parameters fro the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 growth charts. National Health Statistics Reports 62, 1–3.Google Scholar
Ford, K. & Labbok, M. (1993) Breast-feeding and child health in the United States. Journal of Biosocial Science 25(2), 187–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galobardes, B., Lynch, J. W. & Smith, G. D. (2004) Childhood socioeconomic circumstances and cause-specific mortality in adulthood: systematic review and interpretation. Epidemiologic Reviews 26(1), 7–21.Google Scholar
Geyer, S., Hemström, Ö., Peter, R. & Vågerö, D. (2006) Education, income, and occupational class cannot be used interchangeably in social epidemiology. Empirical evidence against a common practice. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 60(9), 804–810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ginther, D. K. & Pollak, R. A. (2004) Family structure and children’s educational outcomes: blended families, stylized facts, and descriptive regressions. Demography 41(4), 671–696.Google Scholar
Gregg, P., Propper, C. & Washbrook, E. (2007) Understanding the Relationship Between Parental Income and Multiple Child Outcomes: A Decomposition Analysis. Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London, UK.Google Scholar
Hauser, R. M. (1994) Measuring socioeconomic status in studies of child development. Child Development 65(6), 1541–1545.Google Scholar
Hochschild, J. L. (1996) Facing up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.Google Scholar
Hoff, E., Laursen, B. & Tardif, T. (eds) (2002) Socioeconomic Status and Parenting (2nd edn, Vol. 2). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.Google Scholar
Hoffman, L. W. (ed.) (2003) Methodological Issues in Studies of SES, Parenting, and Child Development. Larwrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.Google Scholar
Hoffman, S. D., Foster, E. M. & Furstenberg, F. F. Jr. (1993) Reevaluating the costs of teenage childbearing. Demography 30(1), 1–13.Google Scholar
Jiang, Y., Ekono, M. & Skinner, C. (2014) Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children Under 18 years, 2012. National Center for Children in Poverty, New York.Google Scholar
Jones, C. H., Pollard, T. M., Summerbell, C. D. & Ball, H. (2014) Could parental rules play a role in the association between short sleep and obesity in young children? Journal of Biosocial Science 46(3), 405–418.Google Scholar
Kim, C. J., Piger, J. M. & Startz, R. (2008) Estimation of Markov regime-switching regression models with endogenous switching. Journal of Econometrics 143(2), 263–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, K. (2006) Sample selection models with a common dummy endogenous regressor in simultaneous equations: a simple two-step estimation. Economics Letters 91(2), 280–286.Google Scholar
Kozol, J. (1991) Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. Harper Collins, New York.Google Scholar
Krieger, N., Williams, D. R. & Moss, N. E. (1997) Measuring social class in US public health research: concepts, methodologies, and guidelines. Annual Review of Public Health 18, 341–378.Google Scholar
Kuczmarski, R. J., Ogden, C. L. & Guo, S. S. (2002) 2000 CDC Growth Charts for the United States: Methods and Development. National Center for Health Statistics. Hyattsville, MD.Google Scholar
Lawlor, D. A., Andersen, A. M. N. & Batty, G. D. (2009) Birth cohort studies: past, present and future. International Journal of Epidemiology 38(4), 897–902.Google Scholar
Lee, C. & Solon, G. (2009) Trends in intergenerational income mobility. Review of Economics and Statistics 91(4), 766–772.Google Scholar
Lokshin, M. & Sajaia, Z. (2004) Maximum likelihood estimation of endogenous switching regression models. Stata Journal 4(3), 282–289.Google Scholar
McIntosh, J. & Munk, M. D. (2009) Social class, family background, and intergenerational mobility. European Economic Review 53(1), 107–117.Google Scholar
McLanahan, S. & Bumpass, L. L. (1988) Intergenerational consequences of marital disruption. American Journal of Sociology 94(1), 130–152.Google Scholar
Mayer, S. E. (1997) What Money Can’t Buy: Family Income and Children’s Life Chances. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Miech, R. A., Kumanyika, S. K., Stettler, N., Link, B. G., Phelan, J. C. & Chang, V. W. (2006) Trends in the association of poverty with overweight among US adolescents, 1971–2004. Journal of the American Medical Association 295(20), 2385–2393.Google Scholar
Miranda, A. (2004) FIML estimation of an endogenous switching model for count data. Stata Journal 4(1), 40–49.Google Scholar
Modin, B. & Fritzell, J. (2009) The long arm of the family: are parental and grandparental earnings related to young men’s body mass index and cognitive ability? International Journal of Epidemiology 38(3), 733–744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neild, R. C., Stoner-Eby, S. & Furstenberg, F. (2008) Connecting entrance and departure: the transition to ninth grade and high school dropout. Education and Urban Society 40(5), 543–569.Google Scholar
NHLBI. (1998) Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults – The Evidence Report. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.Google Scholar
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M., Curtin, L., McDowell, M., Tabak, C. & Flegal, K. (2006) Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999–2004. Journal of the American Medical Association 295(13), 1549–1555.Google Scholar
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K. & Flegal, K. M. (2014) Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011–2012. Journal of the American Medical Association 311(8), 806–814.Google Scholar
Ogden, C. L., Lamb, M. M., Carroll, M. D. & Flegal, K. M. (2010) Obesity and socioeconomic status in children and adolescents: United States, 2005–2008. NCHS Data Brief 51(1), 1–7.Google Scholar
Osler, M., Andersen, A-M. N., Lund, R. & Holstein, B. (2005) Effect of grandparent’s and parent’s socioeconomic position on mortality among Danish men born in 1953. European Journal of Public Health 15(6), 647–651.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osler, M., Petersen, L., Prescott, E., Teasdale, T. W. & Sorensen, T. I. A. (2006) Genetic and environmental influences on the relation between parental social class and mortality. International Journal of Epidemiology 35(5), 1272–1277.Google Scholar
Osypuk, T. L., Diez Roux, A. V., Hadley, C. & Kandula, N. R. (2009) Are immigrant enclaves healthy places to live? The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Social Science & Medicine 69(1), 110–120.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. J., Power, C., Logan, S. & Summerbell, C. D. (1999) Childhood predictors of adult obesity: a systematic review. International Journal of Obesity 23(8), S1–107.Google Scholar
Pine, D. S., Goldstein, R. B., Wolk, S. & Weissman, M. M. (2001) The association between childhood depression and adulthood body mass index. Pediatrics 107(5), 1049–1056.Google Scholar
Popkin, B. M. & Gordon-Larsen, P. (2004) The nutrition transition: worldwide obesity dynamics and their determinants. International Journal of Obesity 28(3), S2–S9.Google Scholar
Sadler, L. S., Swartz, M. K., Ryan‐Krause, P., Seitz, V., Meadows‐Oliver, M., Grey, M. & Clemmens, D. A. (2007) Promising outcomes in teen mothers enrolled in a school‐based parent support program and child care center. Journal of School Health 77(3), 121–130.Google Scholar
Sandefur, G. D. & Wells, T. (1999) Does family structure really influence educational attainment? Social Science Research 28(4), 331–357.Google Scholar
Shrewsbury, V. & Wardle, J. (2008) Socioeconomic status and adiposity in childhood: a systematic review of cross-sectional studies 1990–2005. Obesity 16(2), 275–284.Google Scholar
Smith, G. D. (2009) Intergenerational influences on health: how far back do we have to go? International Journal of Epidemiology 38(3), 617–618.Google Scholar
SmithBattle, L. (2007) “I wanna have a good future”: Teen mothers’ rise in educational aspirations, competing demands, and limited school support. Youth and Society 38(3), 348–371.Google Scholar
Solon, G. (1999) Intergenerational mobility in the labor market. In Ashenfelter, O. & Card, D. (eds), Handbook of Labor Economics (Vol. 3A), Elsevier Science B. V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 1761–1800.Google Scholar
Teasdale, T. W., Sorensen, T. I. & Stunkard, A. J. (1990) Genetic and early environmental components in sociodemographic influences on adult body fatness. British Medical Journal 300(6740), 1615–1618.Google Scholar
Thornberry, T. P., Freeman-Gallant, A., Lizotte, A. J., Krohn, M. D. & Smith, C. A. (2003) Linked lives: the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 31(2), 171–184.Google Scholar
Thornberry, T. P., Freeman-Gallant, A. & Lovegrove, P. J. (2009) The impact of parental stressors on the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 38(3), 312–322.Google Scholar
US Department of State. (2015) When a Child Becomes an Adult. URL: http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c21961.htm. (accessed 26th June 2015).Google Scholar
Van de Mheen, H., Stronks, K., Looman, C. W. N. & Mackenbach, J. (1998) Does childhood socioeconomic status influence adult health through behavioural factors? International Journal of Epidemiology 27(3), 431–437.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Hook, J. & Balistreri, K. S. (2007) Immigrant generation, socioeconomic status, and economic development of countries of origin: a longitudinal study of body mass index among children. Social Science & Medicine 65(5), 976–989.Google Scholar
Verropoulou, G. & Basten, S. (2014) Very low, low and heavy weight births in Hong Kong SAR: how important is socioecnonomic and migrant status? Journal of Biosocial Science 46(3), 316–331.Google Scholar
Vidmar, S. I., Carlin, J., Hesketh, K. & Cole, T. (2004) Standardizing anthropometric measures in children and adolescents with new functions for egen. Stata Journal 4(1), 50–55.Google Scholar
Vidmar, S. I., Cole, T. J. & Pan, H. (2013) Standardizing anthropometric measures in children and adolescents with functions for egen: update. Stata Journal 13(2), 366–378.Google Scholar
Weigel, M. M., Armijos, R. X., Hall, Y. P., Ramirez, Y. & Orozco, R. (2007) The household food insecurity and health outcomes of US–Mexico border migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 9(3), 157–169.Google Scholar
Yen, I. H. & Kaplan, G. A. (1998) Poverty area residence and changes in physical activity level: evidence from the Alameda County study. American Journal of Public Health 88(11), 1709–1712.Google Scholar
Zachry, E. (2005) Getting my education: teen mothers’ experiences in school before and after motherhood. The Teachers College Record 107(12), 2566–2598.Google Scholar
Zill, N. (1996) Parental schooling and children’s health. Public Health Reports 111(1), 34–43.Google Scholar