Intergenerational transmission of health behaviors in a changing demographic context: The case of smoking and alcohol consumption

Many studies have documented that health behaviors are transmitted from parents to children. Due to the rise in divorce and remarriage, the context of intergenerational transmission has changed. Using a national multi-actor survey from the Netherlands, the impact of parents' health behaviors on children was compared in different types of families. The focus was on smoking and alcohol consumption of adult children (25–45) in relation to the same health behaviors of multiple parent figures when the children were growing up. Analyses show that the influence of divorced fathers was smaller than that of married fathers. Stepfathers had a significant influence on children as well, on top of the effects of the biological parents. The impact of both divorced fathers and stepfathers was moderated by their involvement in the child's life after divorce. The overall transmission of health behaviors was smaller in single-parent families but larger in stepfamilies.