Macroeconomics

In utero

Biology

Depression (economics)

Offspring

Fetus

Prenatal stress

Psychiatry

Economics

Market economy

Anxiety

Genetics

Psychology

Welfare

Unemployment

Mental health

Poverty

Family disruption

Medicine

Economic growth

Fetal programming

Stressor

Pregnancy

American Economic Review

This paper studies how in utero exposure to maternal stress from family ruptures affects later mental health. We find that prenatal exposure to the death of a maternal relative increases take-up of ADHD medications during childhood and anti-anxiety and depression medications in adulthood. Further, family ruptures during pregnancy depress birth outcomes and raise the risk of perinatal complications necessitating hospitalization. Our results suggest large welfare gains from preventing fetal stress from family ruptures and possibly from economically induced stressors such as unemployment. They further suggest that greater stress exposure among the poor may partially explain the intergenerational persistence of poverty.

Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation