The importance of father�s and own education for self-assessed health across Europe: an East�West divide?

• Autores: Christiaan W.S. Monden, Nan Dirk de Graaf
• Localización: Sociology of Health & Illness, ISSN-e 1467-9566, Vol. 35, Nº. 7, 2013, págs. 977-992
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Abstract How are one�s own education, father�s education, and especially the combination of the two, related to self-assessed health across European societies? In this study, we test hypotheses about differences in self-assessed health between 16 post-socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe and 17 Western European countries. We find substantial cross-national variation in the (relative) importance of own and father�s education for self-assessed health. Over 65 per cent of this cross-national variation is accounted for by the East�West divide. This simple dichotomy explains cross-national differences better than gross domestic product or income inequality. An individual�s father�s education is more important, both in absolute and relative terms, for self-assessed heath in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe. Intergenerational mobility moderates the relative effects of one�s own and one�s father�s education. In Eastern Europe the relative importance of one�s father�s education is greater than it is in Western Europe � particularly for those who are downwardly mobile and have a father with tertiary education. The results are sometimes contradictory to initial expectations; the theoretical implications are discussed.