The Effects of Adult Children’s Unemployment on Parental Mental Health – the Moderating Role of Geographic Distance.

Anna Baranowska-Rataj , Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research, Umeå University
Erika Sandow, Department of Geography, Umeå University
Jordi Gumà Lao, Centre for Demographic Studies, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

A large body of research shows that parental unemployment has negative consequences for children’s mental health. However, we know little about the reverse pattern in intergenerational crossover effects. Using longitudinal data and methods, this study shows how unemployment among adult children is related to mental health among parents, and how this relationship is moderated by geographical distance between parents and their children. We analyse data from the first eight waves of the SHARE survey for 19 European countries from 2004 to 2020. Our final analytical sample consists of 299,755 distinct observations for 78,837 parent-child dyads. We employ correlated random effects models, which control for unobserved fixed in time confounders and allow interacting time-varying observed characteristics in an appropriate way. Our results show that generally, adult children’s unemployment negatively affects parental mental health. Adult children’s unemployment has particularly strong negative consequences on mental health of mothers who co-reside with their children. Regarding fathers, the effects are mainly driven by the group whose children live 5-25 km away. Thus, our hypotheses that the effects of unemployment should be strong among parents whose children who live close by and weaken as the geographical distance gets larger, are confirmed for mothers but not for fathers.

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 Presented in Session 68. Ageing, Distance and Care