American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation: Reply
American Economic Review
vol. 108,
no. 4-5, April 2018
(pp. 1256–63)
Abstract
Persson and Rossin-Slater (2018) find that prenatal exposure to family ruptures affects childhood and adult mental health, as well as infant physical health. We compare children whose relatives die within 280 days post-conception to children whose relatives die in the year after birth. Matsumoto correctly notes that defining the control group using actual birth dates can bias our estimates. Here, we redefine our control group using expected birth dates. The effects on mental health in childhood and adulthood are statistically indistinguishable from those in our original paper. The infant health impacts are attenuated, but statistically significant in our main specifications.Citation
Persson, Petra, and Maya Rossin-Slater. 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation: Reply." American Economic Review, 108 (4-5): 1256–63. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20161605Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth