This research investigates whether the capacity of parity status to predict disability onset varies by race among older women. Data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2008) were used, and a series of discrete-time event-history models were estimated using multinomial logistic regression. Disability onset was constructed from five common activities of daily living measures (i.e., difficulty dressing, bathing, eating, getting in/out of bed, and walking). The initial risk group was old-old women (i.e., born before 1925) without disability in 1998 (N = 2,229). Nulliparous and high-parity Black women born before 1925 were more likely to develop disability onset compared with White women with the same parity status. The results suggest that parity status among Black older women may be a salient risk factor for disability onset.
BeralV. (1985). Long term effects of childbearing on health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 39, 343-346.
2.
BotoseneanuA.LiangJ. (2011). Social stratification of body weight trajectory in middle-age and older Americans: Results from a 14-year longitudinal study. Journal of Aging and Health, 23, 454-480.
3.
BoydR. L. (1989). Racial differences in childlessness: A centennial review. Sociological Perspectives, 183-199.
CutrightP.ShorterE. (1979). The effects of health of the completed fertility of nonwhite and white us women born between 1867 and 1935. Journal of Social History, 13, 191-217.
6.
DavisN. J. (1982). Childless and single-childed women in early twentieth-century America. Journal of Family Issues, 3, 431-458.
7.
DoblhammerG. (2000). Reproductive history and mortality later in life: A comparative study of England and Wales and Austria. Population Studies, 54, 169-176.
8.
EvansM. (1986). American fertility patterns: A comparison of white and nonwhite cohorts born 1903-56. Population and Development Review, 12, 267-293.
9.
FarleyR. (1970). Growth of the black population: A study of demographic trends. Chicago, IL: Markham.
10.
FerraroK. F.Kelley-MooreJ. A. (2003). Cumulative disadvantage and health: Long-term consequences of obesity?American Sociological Review, 68, 707-729.
11.
FerraroK. F.ShippeeT. P.SchaferM. H. (2009). Cumulative inequality theory for research on aging and the life course. In BengstonV. L.GansD.PutneyN.SilversteinM. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (2nd ed., pp. 413-433). New York, NY: Springer.
12.
FieldM. J.JetteA. M. (2007). The future of disability in America. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
13.
GeronimusA. T. (1992). The weathering hypothesis and the health of African-American women and infants: Evidence and speculations. Ethnicity & Disease, 2, 207-221.
14.
GeronimusA. T. (1996). Black/white differences in the relationship of maternal age to birthweight: A population-based test of the weathering hypothesis. Social Science & Medicine, 42, 589-597.
15.
GillespieR. (2001). Contextualizing voluntary childlessness within a postmodern model of reproduction: Implications for health and social needs. Critical Social Policy, 21, 139-159.
16.
GlauberR. (2007). Marriage and the motherhood wage penalty among African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69, 951-961.
17.
GrundyE.TomassiniC. (2005). Fertility history and health in later life: A record linkage study in England and Wales. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 217-228.
18.
HankK. (2010). Childbearing history, later-life health, and mortality in Germany. Population Studies, 6, 275-291.
19.
Health and Retirement Study. (2011). Public use dataset (Produced and distributed by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Aging Grant No. NIA U01AG009740). Ann Arbor, MI.
20.
HeckK. E.SchoendorfK. C.VenturaS. J.KielyJ. L. (1997). Delayed childbearing by education level in the United States, 1969-1994. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 1(2), 81-88.
21.
HenrettaJ. C. (2007). Early childbearing, marital status, and women’s health and mortality after age 50. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 48, 254-266.
22.
HurtL. S.RonsmansC.ThomasS. L. (2006). The effect of number of births on women’s mortality: Systematic review of the evidence for women who have completed their childbearing. Population Studies, 60, 55-71.
23.
KendigH.DykstraP. A.Van GaalenR. I.MelkasT. (2007). Health of aging parents and childless individuals. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 1457-1486.
24.
KuhD.Ben-ShlomoY.LynchJ.HallqvistJ.PowerC. (2003). Life course epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 57, 778-783.
25.
MasnickG. S.McFallsJ. A.Jr. (1976). A new perspective on the twentieth-century American fertility swing. Journal of Family History, 1, 217-244.
26.
MathewsT. J.MacDormanM. F. (2011). Infant mortality statistics from the 2007 period linked birth/infant death data set. National Vital Statistics Reports, 59(6). Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_06.pdf
27.
MorganS. P. (1991). Late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century childlessness. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 779-807.
28.
PostonD. L.JrGotardE. (1977). Trends in childlessness in the United States, 1910-1975. Biodemography and Social Biology, 24, 212-224.
29.
PostonD. L.JrKramerK. B. (1983). Voluntary and involuntary childlessness in the United States, 1955-1973. Biodemography and Social Biology, 30, 290-306.
30.
RAND. (2011). Produced by the RAND Center for the Study of Aging, with funding from the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration (HRS Data, Version K). Santa Monica, CA: Author.
31.
ReadS.GrundyE.WolfD. A. (2011). Fertility history, health, and health changes in later life: A panel study of British women and men born 1923-49. Population Studies, 65, 201-215.
32.
RetherfordR. D.LutherN. Y. (1996). Are fertility differentials by education converging in the United States?Genus, 52, 13-37.
33.
RowlandD. T. (2007). Historical trends in childlessness. Journal of Family Issues, 28, 1311-1337.
34.
SchoenR. (2006). Insights from parity status life tables for the 20th century US. Social Science Research, 35, 29-39.
35.
SpenceN. J. (2008). The long-term consequences of childbearing. Research on Aging, 30, 722-751.
36.
TaniguchiH. (1999). The timing of childbearing and women’s wages. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 1008-1019.
37.
TeachmanJ. (2010). Family life course statuses and transitions: Relationships with health limitations. Sociological Perspectives, 53, 201-220.
38.
TolnayS. E.GuestA. M. (1982). Childlessness in a transitional population: The United States at the turn of the century. Journal of Family History, 7, 200-219.
39.
WadsworthM. (1997). Health inequalities in the life course perspective. Social Science & Medicine, 44, 859-869.
40.
WestoffC. F. (1954). Differential fertility in the United States: 1900 to 1952. American Sociological Review, 19, 549-561.
WrightP. (1989). An examination of factors influencing black fertility decline in the Mississippi Delta, 1880-1930. Biodemography and Social Biology, 36, 213-239.
43.
ZhangZ.HaywardM. D. (2001). Childlessness and the psychological well-being of older persons. Journals of Gerontology Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 56, S331-S320.
