Adult children’s education and older parents’ cognitive health in India: examining the pathways of parents’ empowered status and active engagement

Abstract

ABSTRACT The health and well-being of older parents, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India, depend on adult children. As such, using the 2017–18 wave 1 of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI), we examined (1) the association between adult children’s education and older parents’ cognitive health in India; (2) the extent to which this association is mediated by (a) parents’ empowered status and (b) their active engagement; and (3) whether the associations between (1) and (2) vary for older men and women. Findings reveal that adult children’s education was, indeed, positively associated with older parents’ cognitive health, and this association was significantly stronger for older mothers. The educational attainment of adult daughters was found to have a relatively stronger association with the cognitive functioning of older parents, particularly their older mothers, compared to their male counterparts. We also found that parents of well-educated children were more empowered and mentally and physically engaged, both factors linked to better cognitive functioning. These findings highlight that educating even one child beyond the ‘compulsory’ secondary education proves consequential not just for the child but for parents in later life. Given the considerable generational disparities in educational attainment and the proportion of joint families in the country, older Indians may be particularly well-situated to reap the cognitive health dividends of educating the next generation.