The Impact of Parental Death in Childhood on Sons’ and Daughters’ Status Attainment in Young Adulthood in the Netherlands, 1850–1952

Abstract

Previous research on the impact of parental loss on labor market outcomes in adulthood has often suffered from low sample sizes. To generate further insights into the long-term consequences of parental death, I use the Historical Sample of the Netherlands (HSN). The HSN contains occupational information on life courses of a sample of more than 8,000 males and almost 7,000 females born between 1850 and 1922, a period of important labor market transformations. Roughly 20 % of the sample population experienced parental death before age 16. Linear regression models show that maternal loss is significantly associated with lower occupational position in adulthood for both men and women, which points to the crucial importance of maternal care in childhood for socioeconomic outcomes in later life. This interpretation is supported by the finding that a stepmother’s entry into the family is positively related with sons’ occupational position later in life. In contrast to expectations, the loss of economic resources related to the father’s death is generally not associated with lower status attainment in adulthood for men or for women. The results indicate, however, that the negative consequences of paternal death on men’s socioeconomic outcomes decreased over time, illustrating the complex interaction between individual life courses and surrounding labor market transformations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13524-019-00808-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Early parental death and psychosocial risk factors for dementia: A case–control study in Europe

“…Previous authors have established this age as the most relevant for assessing the effect of early parental death (≤16 years) on the health of the elderly. 11,15,19,34 Sociodemographic data. The following data were recorded: age (<65/≥65 years), gender (male/female), marital status (married, widowed, separated-divorced, or never married), mean years of schooling (<11/≥11 years), economic difficulties (yes/no) and income in percentiles (≤50/>50).…”

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“…The early death of parents has been one of the most studied adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and has been shown to have negative effects on health throughout the life cycle 6 . It has been associated with a higher risk of depression 7,8 and suicide, 9 lower academic achievement, 10 lower occupational position, 11 higher separation rates, 12 and a higher probability of psychosis 13 . In terms of physical health, early parental death has been associated with worse health perception 14 and more somatic symptoms, 15 as well as higher mortality, 16 cardiovascular disease, 4,5,17 self‐harm, 18 and an increased risk of dementia 19‐26 …”

A meta‐analysis of the relationship between parental death in childhood and subsequent psychiatric disorder

“…In a recent meta‐analysis of case‐control studies, Simbi et al 12 reported that those experiencing parental death in childhood or adolescence were 1.76 times more likely to suffer from depression in later adult life, than controls. Beyond health, the impact of the death of a parent can result in lower self‐esteem, poorer educational outcomes and an increased likelihood to become involved in violent criminal behaviour 8,13 …”

Beyond orphaned infants: novel effects of maternal death in wild primates

“…However, because offspring are less dependent on mothers during this phase of life, the effects of maternal loss after weaning can be sub-lethal (9,16,22). If an offspring that is weaned (but still partially dependent on its mother) survives its mother's death, the offspring may experience long-lasting negative effects, including adverse behavioral or social outcomes in adolescence or adulthood (humans: (23,24); non-humans: (19,20,(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)). In baboons, chimpanzees, and elephants, motherless offspring may experience reduced survival during adolescence and adulthood, well after the maternal loss occurs, presumably because maternal loss results in a chronic reduction in body condition (13,21,26,32) (Figure 1, red arrow).…”