You'll Live Longer If Your Kids Go to College - East Idaho News
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You’ll Live Longer If Your Kids Go to College

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GETTY 080414 parentscollegegrad?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1407164335940iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Although sending youngsters to college is an expensive proposition for parents, it could wind up helping mom and dad in the long run.

How so? A study of 26,000 adults over the age of 51 reported by the Pew Research Center determined that parents of college grads live about two years longer than those whose kids didn’t continue their education beyond high school.

Taking into account parents’ own education and income, sociologists Esther Friedman and Robert Mare said that the folks lived to an average of 71 years old if their children had a college degree, compared to 69 for the other group.

Friedman and Mare explained the difference might have to do with better educated kids steering their moms and dads to a healthier lifestyle.

That includes either not smoking or giving up smoking as well as exercising more than parents of children who didn’t wind up going to college.


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