Cause of parental death and child's health and education: The role of parental resources

Abstract

Early parental death has been linked to problems in health and educational path. We added to the literature by examining disability pension and various educational outcomes after external (accident, violence, suicide) or natural parental death during childhood or adolescence, taking into account possible heterogeneous associations by parental resources. Using Finnish register data and linear random-effects models, we analysed outcomes of 90,620 and 88,859 children (paternal and maternal death samples, respectively) born between 1982 and 1990. Results indicated lower educational performance and attainment, and a higher probability of disability pension in the bereaved offspring, especially after external parental death. Half of these connections were explained after adjusting for childhood family characteristics. Having a highly educated surviving parent might protect from negative educational and health outcomes. The findings were partly similar for father's and mother's deaths. We demonstrated that the negative associations between parental death and child wellbeing differ by cause of death and parental resources. Cause of death and overall family circumstances should both be considered when analysing child outcomes after parental loss.

Keywords

• Parental death
• Cause of death
• Health
• Education
• Parental resources