CHILDHOOD CONDITIONS THAT PREDICT SURVIVAL TO ADVANCED AGES AMONG AFRICAN-AMERICANS

This paper investigates the social and economic circumstances of child hood that predict the probability of survival to age 85 among African- Americans. It uses a unique study design in which survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and 1910. A control group o f age and race-matched children is drawn from Public Use Samples for t hese censuses. II concludes that the factors most predictive of surviv al are farm background, having literate parents, and living in a two-p arent household. Results support the interpretation: that death risks are positively correlated over the life cycle. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd. All rights reserved.