Three measures compared
Researchers at Keio University estimated a parent–child association of 0.25 for happiness, 0.22 for self-reported general health and 0.13 for mental health among Japanese families, using a statistical measure known as the rank–rank slope. A larger value indicates a stronger link between a parent's relative position within one generation and a child's position within the next. Happiness was therefore the most persistent of the three measures and mental health the weakest. The researchers said the figures do not mean that parents determine a particular percentage of their children's happiness.
Well-being less persistent than income
Subjective well-being was generally less persistent across generations than household income in Japan, according to the study, published in Review of Economics of the Household. Income, education, lifestyle and personality accounted for only part of the association. Among personality traits, agreeableness made a modest contribution to the link in happiness, and much of the association remained unexplained. The relationship appeared somewhat stronger in wealthier households, although the researchers said that difference was not statistically significant.
Parents and children followed over time
The analysis drew on the Japan Household Panel Survey, a programme associated with Keio University's Panel Data Research Center that began collecting information from the same individuals in 2004 and was later extended to their adult children, including those no longer living with their parents. Data covered only two years for the children's generation and for mental health in both generations, which the researchers said made estimates of longer-term well-being less certain. The study identifies associations rather than proving that parents transmit happiness or health to their children, and the authors said genetic influences, shared environments and economic circumstances may contribute.
What the authors say
Kayoko Ishii, a project associate professor in the Faculty of Economics, said the team's main question was how strongly subjective well-being is related between parents and children, and that previous work on intergenerational inequality had mainly focused on objective outcomes such as income, education and occupation. Isamu Yamamoto, a professor in the Faculty of Business and Commerce and director of the centre, said attention had traditionally been on disparities in income and assets, but that inequality in non-monetary aspects of life such as health and well-being must also be examined. The study acknowledges support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the university said.
