Evaluating the Role of Parental Education and Adolescent Health Problems in Educational Attainment

Janne Mikkonen,Pekka Martikainen,Heta Moustgaard,Hanna Remes

doi:10.1007/s13524-020-00919-y

Janne Mikkonen, Pekka Martikainen + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-020-00919-y

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Abstract

This article reconsiders the role of social origin in health selection by examining whether parental education moderates the association between early health and educational attainment and whether health problems mediate the intergenerational transmission of education. We used longitudinal register data on Finns born in 1986–1991 (n = 352,899). We measured the completion of secondary and tertiary education until age 27 and used data on hospital care and medication reimbursements to assess chronic somatic conditions, frequent infections, and mental disorders at ages 10–16. We employed linear probability models to estimate the associations between different types of health problems and educational outcomes and to examine moderation by parental education, both overall in the population and comparing siblings with and without health problems. Finally, we performed a mediation analysis with g-computation to simulate whether a hypothetical eradication of health problems would weaken the association between parental and offspring education. All types of health problems reduced the likelihood of secondary education, but mental disorders were associated with the largest reductions. Among those with secondary education, there was further evidence of selection to tertiary education. High parental education buffered against the negative impact of mental disorders on completing secondary education but exacerbated it in the case of tertiary education. The simulated eradication of health problems slightly reduced disparities by parental education in secondary education (up to 10%) but increased disparities in tertiary education (up to 2%). Adolescent health problems and parental education are strong but chiefly independent predictors of educational attainment.

Highlights

Higher education shows a positive impact on earnings, employment, life satisfaction, and workplace autonomy even in the context of educational expansion (Cairó and Cajner 2018; Edgerton et al 2011; Psacharopoulos and Patrinos 2018)
Children and adolescents experiencing poor health attain, on average, a lower education than their peers without health problems. This basic result seems to hold regardless of whether health problems are measured by self-rated health (Jackson 2009; Lê et al 2013; Lynch and von Hippel 2016), specific health conditions and symptoms (Brekke 2015; Champaloux and Young 2015; Fletcher 2008, 2010; Kessler et al 1995), or administrative records of diagnoses (Currie et al 2010; Mikkonen et al 2018; Roos et al 2013), comparable evidence suggests that the associations are generally the strongest for mental disorders and apply only to certain types of somatic conditions (Champaloux and Young 2015; Layte and McCrory 2013; Mikkonen et al 2018; Uiters et al 2014; van der Heide et al 2016)
Our results suggest that adolescent health problems and parental education are strong but independent predictors of educational attainment and do not form a substantial causal chain stretching from low parental education to health problems and subsequently to lower educational attainment

Summary

Introduction

Higher education shows a positive impact on earnings, employment, life satisfaction, and workplace autonomy even in the context of educational expansion (Cairó and Cajner 2018; Edgerton et al 2011; Psacharopoulos and Patrinos 2018). Children and adolescents experiencing poor health attain, on average, a lower education than their peers without health problems This basic result seems to hold regardless of whether health problems are measured by self-rated health (Jackson 2009; Lê et al 2013; Lynch and von Hippel 2016), specific health conditions and symptoms (Brekke 2015; Champaloux and Young 2015; Fletcher 2008, 2010; Kessler et al 1995), or administrative records of diagnoses (Currie et al 2010; Mikkonen et al 2018; Roos et al 2013), comparable evidence suggests that the associations are generally the strongest for mental disorders and apply only to certain types of somatic conditions (Champaloux and Young 2015; Layte and McCrory 2013; Mikkonen et al 2018; Uiters et al 2014; van der Heide et al 2016). Something essential may be lost when social origin is treated as a nuisance factor because both the prevalence and experience of childhood health problems are likely to differ in advantaged as opposed to disadvantaged families (Case and Paxson 2006)

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