The life course shaping of quality of life in older age: does childhood poverty associate with control, autonomy, self-realisation and pleasure? A retrospective and prospective study of HRS, ELSA, SHARE and TILDA cohorts

Later-life quality of life is increasingly recognised as a life-course achievement, yet ageing research has focused more on dysfunction and decline than on positive wellbeing. This study examines whether childhood poverty shapes later-life quality of life, measured by CASP: control, autonomy, self-realisation and pleasure. METHODS: I analysed harmonised data from 59,569 adults aged over 50 in 29 countries, drawn from HRS, ELSA, SHARE and TILDA (U.S. Health and Retirement Study, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing). Childhood poverty was modelled as a latent class from retrospectively reported childhood material circumstances, acknowledging recall error in such reports. Country fixed-effects linear models estimated associations with CASP, first adjusting for age, sex and country, then adding education, marital status and later-life wealth. RESULTS: One in five participants grew up in poverty (22.9%). Mean CASP was 38 out of 48. Initially childhood poverty was associated with a 1.2-point lower CASP score; after complete adjustment the penalty attenuated but remained durable at 0.7 points. Education, partnership and wealth were independently associated with higher wellbeing but did not erase the penalty. Predicted age profiles showed poverty penalty in every country. They also revealed striking national differences: Nordic countries achieved markedly higher CASP levels than several Eastern European countries; Finns aged 90 had similar levels of positive wellbeing to Latvians two decades younger. CONCLUSION: Childhood poverty leaves a durable mark on later-life positive wellbeing, while welfare contexts appear to lift overall CASP levels. Reducing child poverty and strengthening social protection are therefore lifelong wellbeing policies.