The Role of Children's Education for the Mental Health of Aging Migrants in Europe

Abstract

This paper uses data from SHARE Wave 1 (release 2.6.0, DOI: 10.6103/SHARE.w1.260). The SHARE data collection was funded primarily by the European Commission through its 5th , 6th and 7th framework programmes (project numbers QLK6-CT-2001-00360, RII-CT-2006-062193, CIT5-CT-2005-028857, 211909, 227822 and 261982). Additional funding from the U.S. National Institute on Aging (U01 AG09740-13S2, P01 AG005842, P01 AG08291, P30 AG12815, R21 AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG BSR06-11 and OGHA 04-064) as well as by various national sources is gratefully acknowledged (see http://www.share-project.org for a full list of funding institutions).

In this study, using SHARE data we examined whether adult children’s education is associated with depressive symptoms (EURO-D caseness) for older immigrants and non-immigrants in Europe. After controlling for possible confounders, we found that the education of adult children has independent effects on the mental health of their parents, and that having children with upper secondary or tertiary levels of education significantly lessen the odds of immigrants experiencing depressive symptoms. Furthermore, regular contact between parents and their adult children exerts a positive influence as well as amplifying the relationship between children’s education and mental health. Taken together, the results demonstrate that, were it not for family social capital, older immigrants might experience much worse mental health outcomes.

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