ArticleDemography2014
Why do older people change their ratings of childhood health?
Article in Demography, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring associations of three evaluative subjective wellbeing measures (Cantril's ladder, life satisfaction, happiness) with 15 childhood and demographic factors across 22 countries.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Prevalence and Predictors of Experiences of Beauty in 22 Countries: An International Assessment of Aesthetic Appreciation in the Global Flourishing Study.Applied research in quality of life · 2026Article
- Childhood predictors of balance in life: a cross-national analysis of the global flourishing study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- An exploratory cross-national analysis of the childhood predictors of inner peace in the Global Flourishing Study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Early Origins of Frailty: Do Later-Life Social Relationships Alter Trajectories of Decline?Journal of aging and health · 2024Article
- Advancing methods for the biodemography of aging within social contexts.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Changes in childhood caregiving impressions among middle-aged and older adults.Personal Relationships · 2023Article
- Life Course Stressors and Functional Limitations in Later Life Among White, Black, and Hispanic Adults: Deleterious, Hardening, or Benign?The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2022Article
- Early Origins of Body Mass in Later Life: Examining Childhood Risks and Adult Pathways.Journal of health and social behavior · 2021Article
- Subjective health in adolescence: Comparing the reliability of contemporaneous, retrospective, and proxy reports of overall health.Social science research · 2021Article
- Early-life Health as a Lifelong Precursor of Self-Related Views of Aging in Later Life.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2021Article
- Maternal Differential Treatment and Psychological Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Marital Tension and Sibling Tension?The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2021Article
- Are Biological Consequences of Childhood Exposures Detectable in Telomere Length Decades Later?The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2021Article
- Early Social Origins of Biological Risks for Men and Women in Later Life.Journal of health and social behavior · 2020Article
- Do Welfare Regimes Moderate Cumulative Dis/advantages Over the Life Course? Cross-National Evidence from Longitudinal SHARE Data.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2020Article
- The scars of the past? Childhood health and health differentials in later life.SSM - population health · 2019Article
- Avoiding the Major Causes of Death: Does Childhood Misfortune Reduce the Likelihood of Being Disease Free in Later Life?The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2019Article
- Retrospective memories of parental care and health from mid- to late life.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2019Article
- Longitudinal associations between having an adult child migrant and depressive symptoms among older adults in the Mexican Health and Aging Study.International journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Does Early-Life Misfortune Increase the Likelihood of Psychotropic Medication Use in Later Life?Research on aging · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A growing number of studies in life course epidemiology and biodemography make use of a retrospective question tapping self-rated childhood health to assess overall physical health status. Analyzing repeated measures of self-rated childhood health from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this study examines several possible explanations for why respondents might change their ratings of childhood health. Results reveal that nearly one-half of the sample revised their rating of childhood health during the 10-year observation period. Whites and relatively advantaged older adults-those with more socioeconomic resources and better memory-were less likely to revise their rating of childhood health, while those who experienced multiple childhood health problems were more likely to revise their childhood health rating, either positively or negatively. Changes in current self-rated health and several incident physical health problems were also related to the revision of one's rating of childhood health, while the development of psychological disorders was associated with more negative revised ratings. We then illustrate the impact that these changes may have on an adult outcomes: namely, depressive symptoms. Whereas adult ratings of childhood health are likely to change over time, we recommend their use only if adjusting for factors associated with these changes, such as memory, psychological disorder, adult self-rated health, and socioeconomic resources.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.