Intergenerational Transmission of Body Mass Index and Associations with Educational Attainment

Background Individual differences in educational attainment (EA) and physical health, as indexed by body mass index (BMI), are correlated within persons and across generations. The present aim was to assess these associations while controlling for parental transmission. Methods We analyzed BMI and EA obtained for 8,866 families from the Netherlands. Data were available for 19,132 persons, including 6,901 parents (mean age 54) and 12,234 of their adult offspring (mean age 32). We employed structural equation modeling to simultaneously model the direct and indirect transmission of BMI and EA from parents to offspring, spousal correlations, and the residual within-person BMI-EA association and tested for gender differences in the transmission parameters. Results We found significant intergeneration transmission of BMI and EA from parents to their adult offspring, and substantial spousal correlations (0.23 for BMI and 0.51 for EA). Cross-trait parent to offspring transmission was weak. The strength of transmission was largely independent of parent or offspring gender. About 60% of the EA-BMI correlation in the offspring persisted after taking into account the intergeneration transmission. Conclusions The intergenerational transmission for BMI and EA is mainly predictive within traits. Significant spousal and within person correlations in the parental generation are responsible for the effect of parental EA on offspring BMI. Offspring EA and BMI are further correlated beyond parental influences.

Parental transmission and the importance of the (non-causal) effects of education on political engagement: Missing the forest for the trees

By most accounts, an important prerequisite for a well-functioning democracy is engaged citizens. A very prominentexplanation of variation in political engagement suggests that parental transmission through socialization accountsfor individual-level differences in political engagement. In this paper, we show that classic formulations of parentaltransmission theory can be supplemented by findings from the bio-politics literature, allowing us to disentangle whenheritable factors are important and when socialization factors are important predictors of political engagement. The paperdemonstrates that the effect of education on various measures of political engagement is confounded by both genes andparental socialization; no previous study has documented the importance of both of these confounders. We then go onto show that as the level of family politicization and consistency increases, the influence of genes decreases. We takethis to imply that family socialization can compensate for (genetic) individual differences and foster increased politicalengagement. By only focusing on the “causal” effect of education, we are missing the forest for the trees.

Religious Parental Transmission and the Importance of Authenticity

During the last decades, European historic churches have experienced a decline in the number of baptisms. This paper maps, describes, and analyses existing relevant empirical research from the Norwegian context by focusing on the social-economic transformation of the society and how it has impacted upon the parents’ generation and the transmission of Christian tradition. The paper examines empirical studies of parents who are themselves baptized in the Church of Norway but have opted out of infant baptism for their child. The paper argues that this practice refers jointly to consumption and the subjectivation of worldviews. The parents’ narratives give the child a strong voice. They emphasize the child’s authenticity and the child’s right to make his/her own decisions. Embedded in consumption norms, the parents relate to a plural market of religious and secular alternatives where the child is viewed as a future actor for positive encounters and critical views.

Rethinking the Boogieman

The boogieman is known by various names in many cultures and is usually associated with parental transmission to infants to get them to sleep. The conventional functional explanation for its persistence in modern life is as a form of social control.This chapter finds in the usage of the belief from childhood into adulthood an alternative explanation in the projection of anxieties over sexual molestation.