The impact of adult child emigration on the mental health of older parents

Irene Mosca and Alan Barrett

Journal of Population Economics, 2016, vol. 29, issue 3, No 2, 687-719

Abstract: Abstract We explore whether older parents of adult children who emigrate experience, in the short term, increases in depressive symptoms and loneliness feelings compared to parents whose children do not migrate. We use data from the first two waves of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, which is a nationally representative sample of 8500 people aged 50 + living in Ireland. To deal with the endogeneity of migration, we apply fixed-effects estimation models and control for a broad range of life events occurring between the two waves. These include the emigration of a child but also events such as bereavement, onset of disease, retirement and unemployment. We find that depressive symptoms and loneliness feelings increase among the parents of migrant children but that the effect is only present for mothers. As the economic burden of mental health problems is high, our findings have potentially significant impacts for migrant-sending regions and countries.

Keywords: Emigration; Depression; Mental health; Older parents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 I15 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Working Paper: The Impact of Adult Child Emigration on the Mental Health of Older Parents (2014)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-015-0582-8

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