Work-family biographies and cognitive health in later life: Which are the mechanisms explaining the relationship?

Giulia Tattarini, University of Hamburg
Damiano Uccheddu , University of Louvain (UCLouvain)
Ariane Bertogg, University of Konstanz

Previous studies have shown that gendered work-family trajectories relate to various dimensions of later life health, and that the linkage between work-family life courses and health seems to depend on the welfare context. Yet, there is little research elucidating the mechanisms how different trajectories are associated with cognitive health is still sparse (Machu et al., 2022). This paper fills the research gap by: i) unpacking the relationship between work-family life courses and late life cognitive performance focusing on three different explanatory mechanisms: material well-being, physical and mental health and social connectedness. Using longitudinal from the SHARE data, we investigate the association between men’s and women’s work-and-family trajectories and cognitive functioning across four institutional contexts: Sweden, Netherlands, France and Italy. We find that lifetime employment participation and family roles are associated with better cognitive functioning, but the benefits are gender-specific and depend on the welfare context. In the next steps, we investigate the role of three mechanisms separately and jointly.

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 Presented in Session 71. Mental and Cognitive Health