Children’s Upward Educational Mobility as a Booster for Parents’ Subjective Well-Being in Later Life

Many European countries have experienced sustained educational expansion. Although the subjective well-being of upwardly mobile individuals has been studied, less is known about the implications of intergenerational mobility in education on parental well-being. Using multivariate regression models based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study examines whether children’s educational mobility is associated with their parents’ well-being, as measured by life satisfaction, and if so, whether low-educated parents profit more than middle-educated parents, and through which mechanisms.

Parents with upwardly mobile children reported higher life satisfaction than those with nonmobile and downwardly mobile children. The effect was slightly stronger for parents with low education than for those with medium education. For parents with more than one child, each additional upwardly mobile child amplified the positive association with life satisfaction. However, we were unable to identify the substantial mechanisms responsible for the association between children’s educational mobility and parents’ life satisfaction. Emotional closeness, financial support, and instrumental help were associated with parental life satisfaction in general but did not differ enough between parents with and without upwardly mobile children to explain the mobility-related difference in parental life satisfaction.

Intergenerational mobility in education represents a potentially relevant and “new” category of social inequality in old age, as social class in later life may also be affected by the educational capital of adult children. We discuss the need for further studies to understand the role of educational mobility for parental well-being in later life.