Health disparities in cognition at older ages may be caused by cumulative disadvantages from childhood, including the family structure in siblings. This paper draws on attachment and confluence theory to develop hypotheses that I test with data from the Health and Retirement Study linked to the 1940 U.S. Census. Using latent growth curve models with entropy balancing weights by the childhood family and contextual covariates, I estimate the long-term causal influence of sibship. A fully-adjusted model shows that having co-residing siblings in childhood is associated with faster rates of cognitive decline in late adulthood. The results also show heterogeneities by the sibling gender composition, with the brother-brother siblings have worse cognitive function in later life, whereas female siblings face steeper cognitive decline. The paper suggests that resource dilution between siblings may be a cumulative risk factor for cognitive aging.
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Yiang Li (2024) studied this question.
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