Children and Mortality: A Meta Analysis

Christa Moore, University of Louisville
Robin S. Hognas, University of Louisville
David Roelfs, University of Louisville
Eran Shor, McGill University

Social scientists have long considered important the influence of childbearing and rearing on long-term outcomes for parents and children. Scholars argue that childbearing and rearing is an integral part of the life course wherein parents’ and children’s lives are linked and interdependent. The absence or presence of children, and the number of children parents have, likely affect the family as a whole and the long-term health and mortality of parents. We use meta-analytic and meta-regression techniques to examine whether the association between parity and parental all-cause mortality is non-linear or forms a U- or J-shaped curve. Our results suggest a significant non-linear association between parity and all-cause parental mortality.