Maternal Stress and Child Outcomes: Evidence from Siblings

Abstract

We study how maternal stress affects offspring outcomes. We find that in-utero exposure to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol negatively affects offspring cognition, health and educational attainment. These findings are based on comparisons between siblings which limits variation to short-lived shocks and controls for unobserved differences between mothers that could bias estimates. Our results are consistent with recent experimental results in the neurobiological literature linking exogenous exposure to stress hormones in-utero with declines in offspring cognitive, behavioral and motor development. Moreover, we find that not only are mothers with low levels of human capital characterized by higher and more variable cortisol levels, but that the negative impact of elevated cortisol on their offspring is greater. These results suggest that maternal stress may play a role in the intergenerational persistence of poverty.

Competition in the Family: Inequality between Siblings and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Advantage

“…These findings are in line with arguments that socioeconomically advantaged parents can compensate for the negative effects of disadvantageous life events on their children's educational outcomes. Previous research obtained similar findings of a compensatory effect of social origin with respect to the negative effects of shocks in early health conditions (Almond et al 2009), a low birth weight (Torche and Echevarría 2011), parental separation (Grätz 2015), maternal employment (Ermisch and Francesconi 2013), maternal stress (Aizer et al 2016), and a young school entry age (Bernardi 2014;Bernardi and Grätz 2015) on child education.…”

“…Similarly, Torche and Echevarría (2011) reported that the negative effect of a low birth weight on cognitive development was concentrated in families with less educated mothers. In addition, Aizer, Stroud, and Buka (2016) found that children with less educated mothers were more negatively affected by exposure to maternal stress in utero than children with highly educated mothers. My study contributes to this literature by analyzing socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effects of birth order, birth spacing, and maternal age on children's educational outcomes.…”

Inequalities in Children's Experiences of Home Learning during the COVID‐19 Lockdown in England*

“…Furthermore, our analysis suggests that the adverse effects of inequalities in time spent learning between poorer and richer children are likely to be compounded by inequalities not only in resources available at 9 Del Bono et al, 2016. 10 Rai, 2015 For example, Aizer, Stroud and Buka (2016) and Persson and Rossin-Slater (2018). 12 Crnic, Greenberg and Slough, 1986.…”

The Role of Children's Health in the Intergenerational Transmission of Economic Status

“…The second considers the quasi-random timing of stressful events (e.g., the death of a relative), given that such events should not adversely affect the living circumstances of the offspring but should affect maternal stress. The evidence from both types of studies is mixed, with some showing significant negative effects of maternal stress on children's mental health, IQ, and educational attainments, while others show negligible effects (40)(41)(42).…”