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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Persson, Petra; Rossin-Slater, Maya
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Stanford University; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141406
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1214-1252
• 关键词: ANTENATAL MATERNAL ANXIETY; DUTCH HUNGER WINTER; prenatal exposure; Birth outcomes; socioeconomic-status; UNITED-STATES; in-utero; cortisol; GRIEF; LIFE

摘要

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.