From Dr. Torres:
Lifecourse epidemiology has long recognized the importance of intergenerational influences on health. However, the direction of these influences is typically described as flowing downward, from one generation to the next. A rapidly emerging body of scholarship from economics, sociology, and public health has begun to consider the reverse – that is, whether the socio-economic status and resources of adult children flow ‘upward’ to influence the outcomes of their older parents. I will present both quasi-experimental and observational evidence on this topic that largely focuses on the impacts of adult child socio-economic status on older parents’ health and wellbeing, including in the context of chronic disease and the COVID-19 pandemic.
