THE RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP OF SELF-RATED HEALTH AND INSTRUMENTAL HELP FROM CHILDREN: EVIDENCE FROM GERMANY

Abstract

Abstract Prior research suggests that receiving support from children may promote health among ageing parents. Poor health, however, often precedes the need for support. Yet, research linking instrumental support and self-rated health (SRH) has been deficient in two regards: First, little research has addressed the relationship between instrumental support and SRH simultaneously using longitudinal data. Second, only few studies, have accounted for unobserved confounders (e.g. within-person effects) and potential reverse causality. Recently developed dynamic panel models with fixed effects provide an opportunity to address these methodological issues. Using four waves of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) among 4,496 adults aged 40 years and older, the current study investigates the potential bidirectional relationship between instrumental support and SRH. I find that prior receipt of instrumental support from children is not a significant predictor of future reported poor SRH. Similarly, previous poor SRH does not significantly predict the likelihood of receiving instrumental support from children at follow-up. Independent of older adults’ SRH, however, prior receipt of instrumental support is a statistically significant predictor of receiving support at follow-up. Regardless of receiving children’s instrumental support, poor SRH in the past predicts poor SRH in the future. The results shed new light on prior bidirectional associations between SRH and instrumental support in the German context. Previous results may be partly explained by a lack of controls for unobserved individual characteristics. The findings suggest that policy interventions may not exclusively rely on older adults’ receipt of support from children in the event of health declines.