Short- and Long-Term Consequences of Serious Parental Health Shocks

Abstract

I show that serious, yet common, parental health shocks in childhood have immediate and lasting effects on mental health and human capital formation for children. Children who experience a parental health shock are more likely to have therapy and take anti-depressant medication following the shock. These children have lower test scores and school enrollment rates. The effect occurs immediately following the shock and persists at least into early adulthood. I find that the effect on test scores is no different for children in high-and lowincome families, but the families react differently to the shock; children from low-income families are more likely to be prescribed anti-depressants following the shock, while children from high-income families are more likely to have therapy. In addition, I find suggestive evidence that children who take anti-depressants following a parental health shock have lower educational attainments in early adulthood, while therapy doesn't have harmful long-term effects. * I am thankful to many who have discussed this paper with me and who have provided useful comments and feedback, particularly

Are Children's Socio-Emotional Skills Shaped by Parental Health Shocks?

“…Furthermore, we consider more severe shocks than others in the literature who have found no effects once selection was taken care of (Le and Nguyen, 2017). Moreover, Kristiansen (2020) uses the same data as we do, and finds significant effects of parental health shocks on children's educational performance and attainment.…”

“…The existing literature that studies the effect of parental health on children focuses mostly on how childrens' health and educational outcomes are affected (see, for example, Currie and Moretti, 2007;Bhalotra and Rawlings, 2011;Kristiansen, 2020). Some research has shown associations between parental health and child educational outcomes in the US (Andrews and Logan, 2010, using the ECLS-K; or Johnson and Reynolds, 2013 using the NLSY), while many papers use data from developing countries (such as Senne, 2014;Dhanaraj, 2016;Alam, 2015) or transition countries (Bratti and Mendola, 2014).…”

Are Children's Socio-Emotional Skills Shaped by Parental Health Shocks?

“…The existing literature that studies the effect of parental health on children focuses mostly on how childrens' health and educational outcomes are affected (see, for example, Currie and Moretti, 2007;Bhalotra and Rawlings, 2011;Kristiansen, 2020). Some research has shown associations between parental health and child educational outcomes in the US (Andrews and Logan, 2010, using the ECLS-K; or Johnson and Reynolds, 2013 using the NLSY), while many papers use data from developing countries (such as Senne, 2014;Dhanaraj, 2016;Alam, 2015) or transition countries (Bratti and Mendola, 2014).…”