How long men live may depend
upon parents, childhood conditions
How long a man lives is partially determined by his childhood
conditions and experience, according to an extensive study, which
concludes that men face higher risk of early death if they grew up in
blue-collar homes, lived in urban areas, lived with their biological
fathers and a stepmother, had a mother who worked outside the home, whose
parents were both native born and had few economic resources.
Having
parents who worked in professional jobs, growing up on a farm, and growing
up in a two-parent family lowered significantly the risk of death for men
after age 45. In large part, the association between a healthy environment
in childhood and good health in old age is explained by the achievements
and lifestyle behaviors of the men in their own adult careers -- those who
had favorable conditions as boys were less likely as older men to smoke,
drink excessively, or be obese. They were more likely than their
contemporaries from poorer childhood homes to finish high school or
college and work as adults in occupations that were cognitively
challenging and offered autonomy. Men who had lived at age 15 with a
stepfather and a mother who worked outside the home (at a time when far
fewer mothers worked) had a risk of mortality at older ages almost 1.5
times as great as those who had lived with both biological parents.
The
social settings of early life have far-reaching consequences, affecting
the risk of death even decades later. Adult mortality is the long-term
outcome of a range of childhood conditions and experiences, beginning in
the womb and influenced by the cumulative experiences of adulthood, say
sociologists Mark D. Hayward, Ph.D., of Penn State University and Bridget
K. Gorman, Ph.D., of Rice University and the University of Texas, who
studied the lives of 5,000 men born between 1906 and 1921. The men were
interviewed in 1966 about their family backgrounds at age 15, as well as
other health-related issues, and they were tracked for 24 years after the
first interview.
The
research appears in the journal Demography.
Other
researchers have found that childhood circumstances have a cascading
effect on adult life that then result in a greater risk of death.
Everything from a child’s education or disease exposure to parents’
financial standing or birthplace can affect the later course of life.
For
instance, those early circumstances might direct a young person’s career
choice, which in turn would dictate income, lifestyle, insurance coverage
or workplace hazards, any of which might influence health and the length
of life.
Hayward
and Gorman’s study suggests that childhood does not affect longevity in
simple, straightforward ways. The health of adults appears to be the
outcome of childhood circumstances plus adult socioeconomic resources and
lifestyles, they say.
Hayward
and Gorman evaluated data collected in the 1966 National Longitudinal
Survey of Older Men. The men were then 45 to 59 years old and were
followed until 1990. They were queried about social, economic and
lifestyle information in adulthood, as well as their circumstances at age
15. Of the 5,000 subjects interviewed in 1966, Hayward and Gorman were
able to analyze death information on 2,346.
They
found that the circumstances of youth did influence outcomes later in
life, from ages 45 to 83.
The
men’s childhood surroundings in the 1920s and 1930s reflected their
times. About 28 percent lived in small towns and 35 percent lived on
farms. Only 20 percent lived in cities with more than 100,000 people.
Almost half the heads of their households had less than a ninth-grade
education. Almost 22 percent of the men had two foreign-born parents and
60 percent of their mothers did not work outside the home. Three out of
four grew up with both biological parents.
Decades
later, these factors came into play at the end of their lives. Men who
grew up on farms, for instance, had a better chance at a longer life than
men who grew up in large cities. Those whose mothers and fathers were both
immigrants had longer life expectancy than sons of native-born couples.
Men from families with two biological parents had lower mortality than
those from families with a step-father. The life expectancy of men from
families where the head of the household worked in a white-collar job
exceeded that for men from blue-collar homes.
Many
of these effects, however, operated through adult achievement and
lifestyles. So, men reared in white collar homes benefited from greater
educational attainment, income and wealth and intrinsically rewarding
jobs. Men reared in families with two biological parents or on farms were
less likely to be overweight as adults, which reduced their chances of
early death.
This
research was partially funded by grants from the National Institute on
Aging and the National Institute of Child Health and Development.