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Born to be wide? Exploring correlations in mother and adolescent body mass index

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  • Brown, Heather
  • Roberts, Jennifer

Abstract

The channels contributing to the intergenerational correlation in body mass are not well understood. A novel decomposition approach from quantitative genetics is used to estimate the contribution of maternal characteristics, household income, and adolescent behaviours on the intergenerational correlation in BMI. The analysis uses data on mothers and their adolescent children from the British Household Panel Survey. The overall intergenerational correlation in BMI is 0.25. Maternal educational attainment and adolescent participation in daily physical activity are the largest contributing factors to the intergenerational correlation in BMI. Maternal employment and high daily television viewing by the adolescent are also contributing factors. Overall, observable characteristics explain 11.2% of the intergenerational correlation in BMI.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Heather & Roberts, Jennifer, 2013. "Born to be wide? Exploring correlations in mother and adolescent body mass index," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 413-415.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:120:y:2013:i:3:p:413-415
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2013.05.022
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. Xiao, Mimi, 2015. "Intergenerational transmission and the effects of health on migration," Economics PhD Theses 0515, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Body mass index; Restricted maximum likelihood; Intergenerational correlation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

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