Mental health of parents and life satisfaction of children: a within-family analysis of intergenerational transmission of well-being

Publication type

Research Paper

Series Number

08/20

Series

University of York Discussion Papers in Economics

Authors

Publication date

July 1, 2008

Abstract:

This paper addresses the extent to which there is an intergenerational transmission of mental health and subjective well-being within families. Specifically it asks whether parents’ own mental distress influences their child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa. Whilst the evidence on daily contagion of stress and strain between members of the same family is substantial, the evidence on the transmission between parental distress and children’s well-being over a longer period of time is sparse. We tested this idea by examining the within-family transmission of mental distress from parent to child’s life satisfaction, and vice versa, using rich longitudinal data on 1,175 British youths. Results show that parental distress at year t-1 is an important determinant of child’s life satisfaction in the current year. This is true for boys and girls, although boys do not appear to be affected by maternal distress levels. The results also indicated that the child’s own life satisfaction is related with their father’s distress levels in the following year, regardless of the gender of the child. Finally, we examined whether the underlying transmission correlation is due to shared social environment, empathic reactions, or transmission via parent-child interaction.

Subjects

Link

- http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/econ/documents/dp/0820.pdf

Notes

Springer search

working paper

#511732

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