IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0232491.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Grandparents’ wealth and the body mass index trajectories of grandchildren

Author

Listed:
  • Ying Huang

Abstract

Background: The aims of this study are to (i) examine associations between grandparents’ wealth and grandchild’s initial body mass index (BMI) in early childhood and its subsequent growth patterns, and to (ii) assess whether the associations are similar for white and black children. Methods: Data are from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and its supplemental studies of Child Development Supplement (CDS) and Transition to Adulthood (TA) (N = 2,128). Three-level growth curve models are used to analyze the association between exposure to grandparental wealth in early childhood and grandchildren’s BMI growth trajectories, accounting for parental sociodemographic characteristics and maternal BMI levels. Results: Children with less grandparental wealth in early childhood have higher initial BMI than children with more grandparental wealth. Further, increases in grandparental wealth in childhood are associated with a slower BMI growth rate. The wealth-body mass index associations are more evident among white children than black children. Conclusions: The study reveals a multigenerational social gradient to body mass index. Elevating the wealth levels of the grandparent generation could potentially reduce their grandchildren’s obesity risk. The protective role of grandparental wealth seems to be more evident among white families than black families.

Suggested Citation

  • Ying Huang, 2020. "Grandparents’ wealth and the body mass index trajectories of grandchildren," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0232491
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232491
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232491
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232491&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0232491?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jessica C Jones-Smith & Marlowe Gates Dieckmann & Laura Gottlieb & Jessica Chow & Lia C H Fernald, 2014. "Socioeconomic Status and Trajectory of Overweight from Birth to Mid-Childhood: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-10, June.
    2. Kotlikoff, Laurence J & Summers, Lawrence H, 1981. "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 706-732, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado & Ngo Van Long, 2012. "Envy and Inequality," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(3), pages 949-973, September.
    2. Korom, Philipp, 2016. "Inherited advantage: The importance of inheritance for private wealth accumulation in Europe," MPIfG Discussion Paper 16/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Grossmann, Volker, 2008. "Risky human capital investment, income distribution, and macroeconomic dynamics," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 19-42, March.
    4. Kevin Milligan, 2005. "Life‐cycle asset accumulation and allocation in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(3), pages 1057-1106, August.
    5. C. Lee, 1998. "Life Cycle Savings in the United States, 1900-1990," CPE working papers 0014, University of Chicago - Centre for Population Economics.
    6. Block, Joern H. & Hirschmann, Mirko & Kranz, Tobias & Neuenkirch, Matthias, 2023. "Public family firms and economic inequality across societies," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    7. Guiso, Luigi & Jappelli, Tullio, 2002. "Private Transfers, Borrowing Constraints and the Timing of Homeownership," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 34(2), pages 315-339, May.
    8. Mathias Moser & Stefan Humer & Matthias Schnetzer, 2016. "Bequests and the accumulation of wealth in the Eurozone," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 149, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    9. George‐Levi Gayle & Limor Golan & Mehmet A. Soytas, 2018. "Estimation of dynastic life‐cycle discrete choice models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(3), pages 1195-1241, November.
    10. Eytan Sheshinski, 2005. "Longevity and Aggregate Savings," Discussion Paper Series dp403, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    11. Yang Zaigui, 2005. "Pay-As-You-Go Public Pension Systems: Two-sided Altruism and Endogenous Growth," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-13, June.
    12. Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Gregory Mankiw, N., 1999. "Government debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 25, pages 1615-1669, Elsevier.
    13. Hero Ashman & Seth Neumuller, 2020. "Can Income Differences Explain the Racial Wealth Gap: A Quantitative Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 35, pages 220-239, January.
    14. Shinichi Nishiyama, 2000. "Bequests, Inter Vivos Transfers, and Wealth Distribution: Technical Paper 2000-8," Working Papers 13332, Congressional Budget Office.
    15. Joachim Inkmann & Alexander Michaelides, 2012. "Can the Life Insurance Market Provide Evidence for a Bequest Motive?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 79(3), pages 671-695, September.
    16. Malick Souare, 2003. "Macroeconomic Implications of Population Aging and Public Pensions," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 100, McMaster University.
    17. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2022. "Who is Left Behind? Altruism of Giving, Happiness and Mental Health during the Covid-19 Period in the UK," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 251-276, February.
    18. Bönke, Timm & Werder, Marten v. & Westermeier, Christian, 2017. "How inheritances shape wealth distributions: An international comparison," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 217-220.
    19. Shiller, Robert J., 1982. "Consumption, asset markets and macroeconomic fluctuations," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 203-238, January.
    20. Gokhale, Jagadeesh & Kotlikoff, Laurence J. & Sefton, James & Weale, Martin, 2001. "Simulating the transmission of wealth inequality via bequests," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 93-128, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0232491. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.