Project #2 - Intergenerational Processes and Aging of African-Americans

Differences in black-white older-age mortality rates have persisted for over a century yet few intergenerational databases contain enough African-Americans either to examine heritability among African-Americans or to compare the heritability of characteristics between whites and blacks. This is true despite the importance of parental transmission of socioeconomic and health status to their children through their genes, epigenetic changes in their genes arising from environmental stressors, the investments they make in their children, the resources they give or bequeath to their children, the attitudes or behaviors they impart to their children, and the neighborhood in which they live. This project will create an intergenerational database of African-Americans that will provide a way to understand the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission and how intergenerational processes affect aging and longevity.