Measures of the intergenerational transmission of body mass index between mothers and their children in the United States, 1981–2004

Abstract

This research provides estimates of the intergenerational persistence of Body Mass Index (BMI) between women and their children when both are at similar stages of the lifecycle. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the Young Adults of the NLSY79, associations between the weight status of women and their children are measured when both generations are between the ages of 16 and 24. In the entire sample, the measured intergenerational correlation of BMI is significantly different from zero and equal to 0.35. This result differs by gender with a BMI correlation between female children and their mothers of 0.38, compared to a significantly lower BMI correlation of 0.32 between mothers and their sons. Measures of this relationship across the distribution of BMI using quantile regression and quadrant dependence techniques indicate that the intergenerational persistence of BMI is strongest at higher levels of BMI. Strong dependence across generations is found when categorical outcomes of obesity and overweight are implemented. These results provide evidence of the strong persistence of weight problems across generations which may affect economic mobility within families. KeywordsIntergenerational Mobility; Obesity; Quantile Regression Both the genetic traits and household environments shared by parents and children influence the intergenerational transmission of health capital, which may influence economic success for both generations. The goal of this paper is to provide estimates of the intergenerational persistence of one form of health capital, weight status. The influence of obesity on income, wealth and other measures of socioeconomic status has been documented in recent research (e.g., Cawley (2004) and Zagorsky (2005)). Thus, the transmission of weight problems between generations may provide a mechanism to explain a portion of the relatively high degree of persistence in economic status found in Solon (1992) and Zimmerman (1992). 1 aCorresponding author: Tel. +1 (312) 915-6184. tclass1@luc.edu Address: 1 E. Pearson St., Chicago, IL 60611 USA. * This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health under Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award T32 MH18029-21 from the National Institute of Mental Health. I thank Bobbi Wolfe, John Mullahy, six anonymous referees and the editor John Komlos for comments on previous versions of this paper. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the author.Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. 1 Bowles & Gintis (2002) Various dimensions of hea...

Intergenerational and familial approaches to obesity and related conditions

“…In their paper entitled 'Parental and offspring adiposity associations: insights from the 1958 British birth cohort' , Power et al (2011) use the rich and extensive dataset collected from members of the Medical Research Council (MRC) 1958 birth cohort of UK children, and from their parents and offspring, to investigate parentoffspring weight status associations over the lifecourse, and how they vary across generations. They confirm a previous observation showing that the correlation between BMI in parents and offspring persists into adulthood (Classen 2010) and also demonstrate a correlation between parental BMI in childhood and offspring BMI. They show that parentoffspring correlations in BMI were stronger for recent rather than for older generations.…”

“…Epidemiological data provide mounting evidence that in affluent western societies there are positive associations between the levels of obesity of parents and their offspring (Reilly et al 2005;Lawlor et al 2006;2008;Davey Smith et al 2007;Kivimäki et al 2007;Classen 2010;Labayen et al 2010). In the UK, Whitaker et al (2010) used data from The Health Survey for England 2001England -2006 to demonstrate a greater risk of obesity, as measured by body mass index (BMI), among children of overweight and obese parents.…”

The intergenerational transmission of BMI in China

“…Other papers examine only the tendency to obesity (as a limited binary outcome) between generations and not the IBE or IBC (Martin 2008). A significant departure from the epidemiological literature this was first provided by Classen (2010). Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY 1979) and the Young Adults of the NLSY79, he estimates the intergenerational transmission of BMI between children and their mother when both generations are between the ages of 16 and 24.…”

Within-Family Obesity Associations

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