Childhood Conditions that Predict Survival to Advanced Ages Among African Americans
Penn collection
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
longevity
African Americans
socioeconomic factors
geographic factors
oldest old
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Family, Life Course, and Society
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Contributor
Abstract
This paper investigates the social and economic circumstances of childhood that predict the probability of survival to age 85. It uses a unique study design in which survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and 1910. A control group of age and race-matched children is drawn from Public Use Samples for these censuses. It concludes that the factors most predictive of survival are farm background, having literate parents, and living in a two-parent household. Results support the interpretation that death risks are positively correlated over the life cycle.