Arbeitspapier
A hard pill to swallow? Parental health shocks and children's mental health
Based on comprehensive administrative health record data from Austria, this study examines how children's mental health responds to a severe parental health shock. To account for the endogeneity of a serious parental illness, our sample is restricted to children who experience the health shock of a parent at some point in time and we exploit the timing of shocks in a dynamic DID setting. We find a positive causal effect of parental health shocks on children's mental health care utilization. Affected children have higher medical attendance for the treatment of mental illnesses, consume more psychotropic drugs, and are more likely to be hospitalized with mental and behavioral disorders. A significant increase in the utilization of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and sedatives can be observed for older children, girls and children with a white-collar family background. Our findings have important policy implications for children's access to psychotherapies and mental health care after experiencing a traumatic household event.
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: Working Paper ; No. 2215
- Classification
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Wirtschaft
Health: General
Health Behavior
Health and Inequality
General Welfare; Well-Being
- Subject
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Mental health of children
parental health shock
difference-in-differences
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
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Glaser, Felix
Pruckner, Gerald J.
- Event
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Veröffentlichung
- (who)
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Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Department of Economics
- (where)
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Linz
- (when)
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2022
- Handle
- Last update
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10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Glaser, Felix
- Pruckner, Gerald J.
- Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Department of Economics
Time of origin
- 2022