Mental health around pregnancy and child development from early childhood to adolescence

Stephanie von Hinke*, Nigel Rice, Emma Tominey

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mental health problems during pregnancy affect around 20% of mothers and may have lasting impacts on children's health, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, educational attainment, and future labour market outcomes. We identify the causal effect of mothers’ prenatal mental health on a range of child psychological, socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes. Our methodology exploits shocks to mothers’ mental health that are induced by illness of the mother's friends or relatives, whilst accounting for the non-randomness of exposure to illness. We find that mothers’ mental health problems negatively affect children's psychological and socio-emotional skills in early childhood, but these fade-out between the ages of 11-13. There is no effect on children's cognitive outcomes. Hence, our findings suggest that maternal prenatal mental health may have a limited direct effect on children's future labour market outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102245
JournalLabour Economics
Volume78
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them, and the whole ALSPAC team, which includes interviewers, computer and laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, managers, receptionists and nurses. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee and the Local Research Ethics Committees. Informed consent for the use of data collected via questionnaires and clinics was obtained from participants following the recommendations of the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee at the time. The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome (Grant ref: 102215/2/13/2) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This publication is the work of the authors, who serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper. A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website. This research was specifically funded by the UK DfE (Grant ref: EOR/SBU/2002/121). We thank seminar participants of the Centre for Health Economics, University of York; Manchester Centre for Health Economics, University of Manchester; and ESPE for helpful comments.

Funding Information:
We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them, and the whole ALSPAC team, which includes interviewers, computer and laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, managers, receptionists and nurses. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee and the Local Research Ethics Committees. Informed consent for the use of data collected via questionnaires and clinics was obtained from participants following the recommendations of the ALSPAC Ethics and Law Committee at the time. The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome (Grant ref: 102215/2/13/2) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. This publication is the work of the authors, who serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper. A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website. This research was specifically funded by the UK DfE (Grant ref: EOR/SBU/2002/121). We thank seminar participants of the Centre for Health Economics, University of York; Manchester Centre for Health Economics, University of Manchester; and ESPE for helpful comments.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022

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