American Economic Review Vol. 108 No. 4-5 2018

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation

Petra Persson¹; Maya Rossin-Slater²

¹ Stanford University, 579 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, NBER, and the Research Institute for Industrial Economics (email: ) · ² Stanford University School of Medicine, Redwood Building T101C, 259 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, NBER, and IZA (email: )

Abstract

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.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20141406

Volume

108

Issue

4-5

Pages

1214-1252

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref

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