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Is the intergenerational transmission of overweight ‘gender assortative’?

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  • Costa-Font, Joan
  • Jofre-Bonet, Mireia

Abstract

Using almost two decades worth of data from the Health Survey for England, that contain representative records of clinically measured weight and height, this paper studies whether parents and children’s overweight (including obesity) is ‘gender assortative’. Our findings suggest that the intergenerational transmission of parent’s overweight differs by children’s sex and is statistically different for fathers and mothers. Gender assortative overweight is stronger among pre-school age and school-aged children. The parent-child associations are large and precisely estimated, heterogeneous by children’s age and sex and stronger among white children and children of older parents. These results suggest there is a gender assortative intergenerational association of overweight.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa-Font, Joan & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia, 2020. "Is the intergenerational transmission of overweight ‘gender assortative’?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:39:y:2020:i:c:s1570677x20301775
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100907
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    Cited by:

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    3. Costa-Font, Joan & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Le Grand, Julian, 2020. "Vertical transmission of overweight: Evidence from a sample of English adoptees," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2022. "Intergenerational health effects of Medicaid," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender-assortative transmission; Gender assortative; Child obesity; Child overweight; Role models; Inter-generational transmission;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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