Parental responses to children’s early health disadvantages: evidence from a British twin study

Abstract

Health problems experienced in the early years of life have detrimental consequences for the entire life course. However, parents can, through their child-rearing actions, alleviate or aggravate these effects. This article examines how parents respond to the early physical health disadvantages suffered by their children and whether parents from high- and low-socioeconomic backgrounds develop different responses to their children’s early health problems. Using longitudinal data from the Twins Early Development Study, I implement a series of within-twin fixed-effects models and find that, on average, parents develop more negative emotional responses and implement harsher discipline behaviours when their children experience an early health problem. Surprisingly, the effect of health problems on parental responses does not differ by the socioeconomic status of the family. With some nuances, this evidence suggests that parental responses reinforce early-in-life health disadvantages.