Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health

Adhvaryu, Achyuta; Fenske, James; Nyshadham, Anant

doi:10.1086/701606

Cited by 155 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Heterogeneous estimation across males and females shows that the deleterious effect of in‐utero drought shocks on long‐term outcomes is more pronounced for males than females. While our subjective well‐being findings generally strengthen findings in the existing literature (Adhvaryu et al., ), it is noteworthy to particularly stress that this paper deviates from the literature by engaging in disaggregated extreme shocks rather than linear shock specifications. In this case, we find that drought shocks are indeed more deleterious than flood counterparts for adult welfare outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Our paper contributes to a growing literature on the dynamics of early life conditions on previously underplayed outcomes in a developing country framework. While a huge body of literature document the impact of early life conditions on human capital investment and adult outcomes, our findings complement other studies that have opened up evidence on previously underplayed outcomes such as mental health (Adhvaryu et al., ) and maternal mortality (Comfort, ). In this regard, we conjecture that certain welfare measures often linked to transitory economic circumstances could originate from early life conditions through critical period programming.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…While a study by Adhvaryu et al. () on the impact of cocoa prices at the period of birth on adult mental health in Ghana complements this area of research for a developing country story, the framework of analysis does not specifically address the question regarding economics of happiness. Little is known about the impact of childhood shocks on subjective well‐being of individuals in the developing country in a broader sense.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

\begin{matrix} Adult {Welfare}_{i c t} = {italicα}_{c} + {italicγ}_{t} + {normalΓ}_{a} + \sum_{p = k - 1}^{k + 1} D_{p} Drought {Shock}_{c, p} + \\ \sum_{p = k - 1}^{k + 1} F_{p} Flood {Shock}_{c, p} + X_{i}^{'} {italicθ}_{x} + Z_{c t}^{'} {italicθ}_{z} + {italicε}_{i c t} \end{matrix}

where Γ a is the year‐of‐birth fixed effect (similar to the approach in Maccini and Yang, ; Adhvaryu et al., ). Adult welfare outcomes adopted are school delay years and subjective welfare.…”

Section: Empirical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adhvaryu et al. () study the origins of adult mental health using early life income variations originated from cocoa prices in Ghana. Using variation in cocoa prices around the time of birth, the paper shows that a rise in the price of cocoa for cohorts born around the same time significantly decreases the likelihood of severe mental distress in adulthood (by around half of the average prevalent rate).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short‐term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes

Abiona

2017

Review Development Economics

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This paper examines the impact of exposure to early life rainfall shock on children's anthropometric growth status and other welfare outcomes. The study exploits World Bank repeated cross-section household data on Malawi and exogenous variation in precipitation measures across localities to identify the impact of drought and flood shocks on health, schooling and satisfaction levels. Our main estimate for children's anthropometric growth reveals that an incidence of drought shock leads to a resultant average decrease of 15%, 17% and 43% in age-standardized weight z-scores for shocks experienced at in-utero stage, first and second years respectively. Correspondingly, the relative impacts of an incidence of drought shock on age-standardized height z-scores are 14%, 15% and 27%. In contrast, the impacts of flood shock on each of these outcomes deteriorate over the outlined reference periods. On the adult dimension, we find that adults who face in-utero drought shock are more likely to have greater school entry delays and be unhappy with their current economic situations. However, this adulthood result pertains to male adults in our sample.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

\begin{matrix} Adult {Welfare}_{i c t} = {italicα}_{c} + {italicγ}_{t} + {normalΓ}_{a} + \sum_{p = k - 1}^{k + 1} D_{p} Drought {Shock}_{c, p} + \\ \sum_{p = k - 1}^{k + 1} F_{p} Flood {Shock}_{c, p} + X_{i}^{'} {italicθ}_{x} + Z_{c t}^{'} {italicθ}_{z} + {italicε}_{i c t} \end{matrix}

Section: Empirical Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short‐term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes

Abiona

2017

Review Development Economics

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Short‐term fetal nutritional stress and long‐term health: Child height

Karimi

Little

Mokhtari

2020

American J Hum Biol

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Objective: This study examined the impact of in utero exposure to Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, by trimester on height at ages 0 to 18 for a sample of children from Tehran, Iran. If exposure to Ramadan is associated with significant nutritional stress to the fetus, the fetus's adaptive responses to nutritional insufficiency could manifest as changes in height during childhood, long before any effects on aging or disease risk at older ages.Methods: Children who were exposed and not exposed to Ramadan in utero were compared to identify any systematic difference between their parents' and households' characteristics (including height, age, education, and indicators of wealth). Also, the seasonal pattern of food consumption in Tehran was analyzed. Finally, the association of child height with prenatal exposure to Ramadan was measured, controlling for seasonality and parent and household.Results: Ramadan associated fasting in the second trimester of gestation was associated with 0.091 age-adjusted SDs (ie, 0.60-0.67 cm) decrease in children's height at age 10 years or older. The negative association was largest in male children and was approximately 1 cm at age 12 years or older among male children. Conclusion:Maternal Ramadan fasting in the second trimester, the critical period for long bone development, was associated with decreased height. Exposure to ritual fasting is important because approximately 75% of all Muslim children are exposed to Ramadan in utero.

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Rainfall shocks, child mortality, and water infrastructure

Ponnusamy

2022

Health Economics

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I study the effect of rainfall shocks on child mortality at a sub‐national level for a global set of developing countries. I establish that negative (positive) shocks to rainfall lead to an increase (drop) in child deaths overall. Low‐income countries (LICs) and the group of countries reliant on agriculture are affected the most due to negative rainfall shocks. In LICs, the impact of negative rainfall shocks is mitigated by around 60% in districts located downstream to dams, an effect predominant among less affluent districts; in addition, the effect of rainfall fluctuations is persistent, lasting for up to three years following the shock. Results remain robust to the inclusion of relevant controls, to the consideration of relevant issues such as selective fertility and migration, and various other robustness tests.

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Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health

Abstract: Please refer to published version for the most recent bibliographic citation information. If a published version is known of, the repository item page linked to above, will contain details on accessing it.

Cited by 155 publications

References 93 publications

Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short‐term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes

Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short‐term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes

Short‐term fetal nutritional stress and long‐term health: Child height

Rainfall shocks, child mortality, and water infrastructure

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