Anxious Dads and Depressed Moms: Child Disability and the Mental Health of Parents
Derek Asuman,
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir and
Johan Jarl
Health Economics, 2025, vol. 34, issue 7, 1326-1349
Abstract:
Having a child with a disability undoubtedly affects parents in many ways, including their well‐being. However, the specific mental health trajectories of parents, differentiated by the severity of impairments and parental roles, remain under‐explored. We investigate the mental‐health effects of having a child with a disability. Using individual‐level register data from Sweden, we exploit the epidemiological features of Cerebral Palsy (CP) to estimate causal effects. Results show that prescriptions for mental‐health disorders increase after the birth of a child with CP. While fathers are more likely to be dispensed anti‐anxiety medications, dispensed medications for anti‐depressants increase for mothers. Further, the effects are larger for parents of children with severe impairments but do not differ across parental characteristics. Our findings highlight the need for support and assistance for families with children with disabilities.
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4962
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:34:y:2025:i:7:p:1326-1349
Access Statistics for this article
Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones
More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().