Educational attainment and economic vulnerability among functionally limited older adults: analyzing the mediating pathways of intergenerational support nets in the Philippines
Date
2026-06-08
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Abstract
This paper looks into the protective effect of educational attainment among functionally limited older Filipinos, mediated through the indirect pathway of intergenerational support given by their adult children. Utilizing data from the 2018 Philippine Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health (LSAHP) (n=5,985), the study utilizes a two-stage empirical analysis composed of logistic regression analysis that looks into the direct protective effect of educational attainment and causal mediation analysis which incorporates the mediating effect of intergenerational support. Findings from empirical analysis revealed that a higher educational attainment among functionally limited older adults provides a strong protective effect against later-life economic vulnerability. On the aspect of intergenerational support, adult child education yielded the strongest mediating effect, which is encompassing for both educational categories for asset poverty but is only statistically significant for high school graduates and below for hunger, indicating the importance of education as access to better labor and income opportunities. Adult child migration followed suit, but is only statistically significant toward high school graduates and below for both asset poverty and hunger, highlighting the importance of remittances to build up long-term asset sources and to solve incidence of hunger with short-term cash transfers. Adult child employment lacked statistical significance for both asset poverty and hunger, indicating that low domestic wages are not enough to sustain the needs of functionally limited older adults. The study’s findings suggest that the current government policies should shift towards becoming holistic and family-centered, starting with promoting widespread tertiary educational access for low income households and upholding the House Resolution No. 905 that works on temporary reduction of remittance fees to influence long-term asset building and resolve hunger with short-term cash transfers.
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Keywords
Economic Vulnerability, Educational Attainment, Functionally Limited Older Adults, Intergenerational Support