Is having more children beneficial for mothers’ mental health in later life? Causal evidence from the national health and aging trends study

Abstract

Objectives: Members of the baby boom cohorts had fewer children than their parents. Given that adult children are an important source of social support in later life, this may have implications for the mental health of new cohorts of older people. This study investigates whether having additional children protects white mothers aged 65 and older against mental health problems. Method: Data are from Wave 1 and Wave 5 of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (n ¼ 3,845). An instrumental variable approach exploiting the preference for mixed-sex offspring is used to estimate the causal effect of additional children on the risk of elevated depression and anxiety symptomatology. Results: The estimated instrumental variable model shows that additional children reduce the risk of suboptimal mental health among white mothers aged 65 and older. Conclusion: Results suggest that declines in higher-order births may put new cohorts of older women at increased risk of suboptimal mental health.

Food Insecurity and Mental Well-Being Among Low-Income Families During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Moreover, literature also supports that having an increased number of children can help reduce older parents’ risk of mental health problems. 47 These findings reflect the importance of personal interaction in promoting children’s and adults’ mental well-being. Due to the widespread public daycare and school closures occurring during the pandemic, children lost the opportunity to learn and interact with peers in school, which may negatively impact the overall mental well-being of the next generation.…”

The causal effect of number of children on later-life overweight and obesity in parous women. An instrumental variable study

“…Following prior work on later-life psychological wellbeing ( Kruk and Reinhold, 2014 , Van den Broek, 2020 , Van den Broek and Tosi, 2020 ), we exploit the well-documented preference for mixed-sex offspring in Europe ( Andersson et al, 2006 , Hank and Kohler, 2000 , Mills and Begall, 2010 ). This preference makes mothers of two children more inclined to have a third child when the two firstborn children are either both daughters or both sons than when they are a daughter and a son.…”

Childbearing Biographies and Midlife Women’s Health

“…Parenting children is stressful and strains resources, potentially damaging well-being into midlife and beyond (Pudrovska, 2009), but not having children is stigmatized within US culture in ways that may be negatively associated with long-term health (McQuillan et al, 2012). Further, in midlife in particular, women with children may benefit from social support from their older children (van den Broek, 2020). Given these disparate pathways and the need to approach childbearing patterns holistically, it is reasonable that there is no consensus within the literature regarding how childbearing status is associated with midlife health.…”

“…Worse health with high parity may be due to the added stress associated with each childbirth and caring for each child. In contrast, some research concludes that more childbirths are associated with worse health at older ages, perhaps due to the social support provided by adult children at these ages (van den Broek, 2020). Studies focusing on nonmarital births are more straightforward, finding that these births are associated with worse health in midlife (Keenan & Grundy, 2019; Koropeckyj-Cox et al, 2007; Williams et al, 2011).…”