The Interaction of Family Background and Personal Education on Depressive Symptoms in Later Life

Barbara Schaan, GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

This study assesses the interaction between personal education and family background during childhood on depressive symptoms in later life by applying Ross & Mirowsky’s resource substitution and structural amplification theory of health and education. OLS regression models are estimated using data from the “Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe” (SHARE). Higher education helps overcoming the negative consequences of a poor family background. Since people from poor families are less likely to attain higher educational levels, they lack exactly the resource they need in order to overcome the negative consequences their non-prosperous background has on depressive symptoms. Thus, low family background and low personal education amplify each other. Examining whether this interaction changes as people age cautiously alludes to the conclusion, that three processes – cumulative (dis-)advantage, age-as-leveler, and persistent inequalities – might take place.