Does having highly educated adult children reduce mortality risks for parents with low educational attainment in Europe? Albert Sabater and Elspeth Graham (Centre for Population Change and the University of St Andrews) together with Alan Marshall (University of Edinburgh) examined data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to answer this question. Their results indicate that in Europe, having highly educated children gives a particular mortality advantage to less well-educated fathers and mothers, compared to their counterparts, whose adult children have only compulsory education. Even though the association is stronger in early older age (ages 50–74) than in later older age (ages 75 and over), overall, results imply that recent expansions in higher education have the potential to reduce the difference in mortality among older generations as a child's education becomes a family resource.
A more detailed summary of the article can be found on the SHARE website.