Drawing on data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), Li applied a gendered life course perspective to link parenting experiences reported at age 64 to cognitive outcomes in participants’ 80s. Using Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) scores and clinical diagnoses of dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), her findings reveal a striking disparity: mothers of children with serious health conditions face a significantly higher probability of MCI and lower cognitive scores decades later, whereas no significant association was observed among fathers. Crucially, these findings hold even after controlling for early-life cognition, family background, health, and genetic risk scores.

This work builds on Li’s recent publication in Social Science & Medicine, which similarly demonstrated that a husband’s cognitive decline negatively impacts his wife’s well-being, a pattern that again did not hold for men. Together, Li’s research highlights the disproportionate, lifelong toll placed on women as primary caregivers, laying vital groundwork for public health policies and targeted interventions to support aging mothers.

Reference

Li, M., Li, Y., & Engelman, M. (2026). Gender differences in associations between spousal cognitive decline and marital strain: Evidence from the U.S. older couples. Social science & medicine (1982), 388, 118772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118772