Young Children Who Experience the Death of Parents:

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Young Children Who Experience the Death of
Parents Effects on Adolescent and Adult
Survival Ken R. Smith Geraldine P. Mineau Lee
L. Bean University of Utah Supported by NIA
grant AG13478.
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Abstract
In this study, we investigate whether children
whose parents die when the children are young
experience excess mortality compared to other
children. The study makes use data of children
and their parents identified in the Utah
Population Database for children born between
1850 and 1900. In general, both male and female
children experience excess mortality if their
parents die before the children reach age 12, but
this risk is largely confined to orphans. For
boys, the effect of being orphaned increases the
risk of mortality over the course of their adult
lives up through age 50 without a detectable
decline over time. For girls, the mortality
effects of being orphaned are more complex. When
maternal mortality rates are higher (1850-1879),
being a female orphan has no detectable effects.
When maternal mortality rates decline
(1880-1900), the mortality effects of being
orphaned happen earlier and dissipate with time.
Birth order, sibship size, and the sequence of
deaths of parents do not moderate the mortality
effects of orphanhood.
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Background

• Little systematic work has looked specifically at
  the role of parental death in childhood and its
  effects on adolescent and adult longevity.
• A recent review of the effects of early-life
  conditions on adult mortality (Elo and Preston,
  1992) did not identify studies that considered
  parental mortality as an important early-life
  condition.
• Others have also found that risky behaviors and
  adverse emotional problems are more common among
  those whose parents die while they are young
  adults (Schwartz et al, 1995 Umberson and Chen,
  1995).
• The death of parents may indicate a loss of
  social and economic support early in life and/or
  the presence of an environment that adversely
  affects parents and children alike.
• Children who become orphaned at a young age are
  likely to experience the highest levels of excess
  mortality.

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Hypotheses

• Children surviving to age 12 will experience an
  increase in their risk of mortality if they lose
  one or more parents in childhood compared to
  children whose parents die when children are
  older.
• Children who become orphaned before age 12 have
  the highest risk of mortality of all children.
• Children whose mothers die before the child is 12
  will have mortality rates that are higher than
  children whose fathers die before the child is
  12.
• Parental death will affect equally son and
  daughter mortality.
• First and second born children whose parents die
  will encounter the highest rates of adult
  mortality because these children lack older
  siblings who may become substitute parents.

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Utah Population Database (UPDB)

• Database contains a number of large linked files
  including genealogical data that contain
  information on over one million individuals
  representing about 185,000 "Family Group Sheets"
  abstracted from the Utah Family History Library.
  
• Approximately 70 of the individuals identified
  in the UPDB are identified as active members of
  the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
  Saints (LDS).
• Records include basic demographic and religious
  data on parents and their children mortality
  data are quite extensive with coverage up to
  1996.
• For this study, we include all siblings who
  survive to age 12 from sibships born between 1850
  and 1900.
• Sample size is 48,000.

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Mortality Hazard Rate Models for BoysEffects of
Being Orphaned as a Child
MODEL 1 - Born 1850-1899, Mortality up to AGE
50 Variable Risk Ratio p-value Orphaned by
Age 12 (1) 1.60 lt.01 Birth Order 0.99 .18 S
ibship Size 1.02 lt.01 Date of
Birth 1.00 lt.01
MODEL 2 - Born 1850-1899, Mortality up to AGE
50 Variable Risk Ratio p-value Orphaned by
Age 12 (1) 0.98 0.96 Interaction with
Time 1.02 0.26 Birth Order 0.99 .18 Sibship
Size 1.02 lt.01 Date of Birth 1.00 lt.01
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Mortality Hazard Rate Models for GirlsEffects
of Being Orphaned as a Child
MODEL 1 - Children Born 1850-1879, Up to AGE
50 Variable Risk Ratio p-value Orphaned by
Age 12 (1) 1.01 0.97 Birth
Order 1.00 0.65 Sibship Size 1.00 0.74 Date
of Birth 1.00 0.55
MODEL 2 - Children Born 1880-1899, Up to AGE
50 Variable Risk Ratio p-value Orphaned by
Age 12 (1) 3.73 0.07 Interaction with
Age 0.96 0.09 Birth Order 0.96 0.05 Sibship
Size 1.04 0.08 Date of Birth 1.00 0.98
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Survival Curves for Orphaned and Non-Orphaned
Sons, Birth Years 1850-1899
Proportion Survived
AGE
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Survival Curves for Orphaned and Non-Orphaned
Daughters, Birth Years 1880-1899
Proportion Survived
AGE
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Conclusions

• Children experiencing orphanhood by age 12 have
  higher rates of adolescent and adult mortality
  than non-orphaned children.
• The loss of a mother only or a father only
  produced small or insignificant mortality risks.
  This result suggests that a surviving parent
  buffers a childs mortality response when a
  parent dies , possibly because the surviving
  spouse remarries.
• Orphaned women in the latter birth cohorts have
  higher risks of mortality during their
  childbearing years. This suggests that their
  susceptibility to early death manifests itself
  when stressed during childbirth and child
  rearing.
• The death of parents may indicate a loss of
  social and economic support early in life.
  Children who lose both parents may themselves be
  at greater risk of death because the same
  environmental conditions may increase the risk of
  parents and children alike.