Communication Problems? The Role of Parent-child Communication for the Subsequent Health Behavior of Adolescents

Daniel Avdic () and Tugba Büyükdurmus

No 547, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: We contribute to the literature on the determinants of socioeconomic health disparities by studying how the health behavior of adolescents may arise from the degree of communication between parent and child. Parent-child communication may function as a mediator between family background and subsequent poor health behavior, potentially reconciling previous mixed evidence on the relationship between child health and social status. Using data from a unique German child health survey we construct an index of parent-child communication quality by comparing responses to statements about the children's well-being from both children and their parents. Applying the constructed communication measure in a continuous treatment empirical framework, allowing for estimation of non-linear effects, our results show that improved parent-child communication monotonously reduces the smoking prevalence of adolescents by as much as 70%, irrespective of social background. More complex relationships are found for risky alcohol consumption and abnormal body weight.

Keywords: child health; health behavior; communication; intergenerational transmission; socioeconomic inequality; continuous treatment effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 D83 I12 I14 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:547

DOI: 10.4419/86788625

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