Maternal Stress and Birth Outcomes: Evidence from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake

Bongkyun Kim (), Celeste Carruthers and Matthew Harris
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Bongkyun Kim: Department of Economics, University of Tennessee

No 2016-01, Working Papers from University of Tennessee, Department of Economics

Abstract: Psychological maternal stress is difficult to identify as a causal factor in poor infant health. We posit that the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, California provides a natural test of the effect of mothers' stress on infants' birth weight and gestation. Difference-in-difference results show that infants born closest to the epicenter were 0.24 percentage points more likely to be born with low birth weight. Among the subsample of mothers most susceptible to stress -- first-time, single mothers -- low birth weight was 0.65 percentage points more likely to occur. Impacts were larger and more precisely identified for women who experienced the earthquake in their first or third trimester. We find little evidence that earthquake-induced stress affected preterm delivery.

Keywords: Maternal stress; birth outcomes; natural disasters (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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http://web.utk.edu/~ccarrut1/Kim_Carruthers_Harris_2017-05-25.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)
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Journal Article: Maternal stress and birth outcomes: Evidence from the 1994 Northridge earthquake (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ten:wpaper:2016-01

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