Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation / Petra Persson, Maya Rossin-Slater.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Persson, Petra.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Rossin-Slater, Maya.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22229.

NBER working paper series no. w22229

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

This paper studies how in utero exposure to maternal stress from family ruptures affects later mental health. We find that prenatal exposure to the death of a maternal relative increases take-up of ADHD medications during childhood and anti-anxiety and depression medications in adulthood. Further, family ruptures during pregnancy depress birth outcomes and raise the risk of perinatal complications necessitating hospitalization. Our results suggest large welfare gains from preventing fetal stress from family ruptures and possibly from economically induced stressors such as unemployment. They further suggest that greater stress exposure among the poor may partially explain the intergenerational persistence of poverty.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2016.