Childbearing history, later-life health, and mortality in Germany

Karsten Hank

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Family Dynamics and Relationships Reproductive Health and Contraception Health disparities and outcomes

Abstract

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the role of childbearing history in later-life health and mortality, paying particular attention to possible differences by sex and region. Higher parity is associated with better self-rated health in West German mothers and fathers aged 50+, but its relationship with East German women's physical health and survival is negative. Early motherhood is paralleled by poorer physical health in West Germany, whereas late motherhood is associated with lower psychological well-being in Eastern Germany. Moreover, among West German women, having had a non-marital first birth is weakly correlated with poorer physical health. Our findings support the notion of biosocial pathways playing an important role in shaping the fertility-health nexus. Specifically, the West German 'male-breadwinner' model of specialization appears to have buffered the stresses associated with childrearing, whereas fertility off the 'normative' life-course track appears to have had adverse effects on women's health in West Germany.

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References

2009New Directions in Life Course Research 1998Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success 2009Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life 2009Social Class Differentials in Health and Mortality: Patterns and Explanations in Comparative Perspective 2004Socioeconomic inequalities in mortality among elderly people in 11 European populations 1993Family Mortality in Guatemala 2007Historical Trends in Childlessness 2001Childlessness and the Psychological Well-Being of Older Persons

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