Abstract
ObjectivesWe examine to what extent the effect of early-life conditions (health and socioeconomic status) on health in later life is mediated by educational attainment and life-course trajectories (fertility, partnership, employment).MethodsUsing data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 12,034), we apply, separately by gender, multichannel sequence analysis and cluster analysis to obtain groups of similar family and employment histories. The KHB method is used to disentangle direct and indirect effects of early-life conditions on health.ResultsEarly-life-conditions indirectly impact on health in later life as result of their influence on education and family and employment trajectories. For example, between 22% and 42% of the effect of low parental socio-economic status at childhood on the three considered health outcomes at older age is explained by educational attainment for women. Even higher percentages are found for men (35% - 57%). On the contrary, the positive effect of poor health at childhood on poor health at older ages is not significantly mediated by education and life-course trajectories. Education captures most of the mediating effect of parental socio-economic status. More specifically, between 66% and 75% of the indirect effect of low parental socio-economic status at childhood on the three considered health outcomes at older age is explained by educational attainment for women. Again, higher percentages are found for men (86% - 93%). Early-life conditions, especially socioeconomic status, influence family and employment trajectories indirectly through their impact on education. We also find a persistent direct impact of early-life conditions on health at older ages.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that early-life experiences influence education and life-course trajectories and health in later life, suggesting that public investments in children are expected to produce long lasting effects on people’s lives throughout the different phases of their life-course.
Highlights
A growing literature has pointed at long lasting influences of early-life conditions on individuals’ health and survival
Between 22% and 42% of the effect of low parental socio-economic status at childhood on the three considered health outcomes at older age is explained by educational attainment for women
Even higher percentages are found for men (35% - 57%)
Summary
A growing literature has pointed at long lasting influences of early-life conditions on individuals’ health and survival. Exposures to diseases or to a context of deprivation in terms of low socioeconomic conditions have been found to have enduring consequences on health [1,2,3,4] Another strand of the literature suggests a substantive influence of family [5,6,7] or employment [8] trajectories on health, wellbeing and mortality. Other studies have uncovered important effects of early-life conditions on partnership formation and dissolution [9], human reproduction [10] and employment trajectories [11]. Early-life conditions may interact with individuals’ achievements at later life-course stages (Accumulation of Risks and the Social Mobility models; [4])
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