The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China
With the growing and aging population round the world, it becomes increasingly important to understand what factors impact the mental health and cognition of the older generations in order to design effective interventions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a child’s gender on parental men...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2022-06-01
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| Series: | SSM: Population Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827322000659 |
| _version_ | 1811243357483040768 |
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| author | Yanran Chen Ruochen Sun |
| author_facet | Yanran Chen Ruochen Sun |
| author_sort | Yanran Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the growing and aging population round the world, it becomes increasingly important to understand what factors impact the mental health and cognition of the older generations in order to design effective interventions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a child’s gender on parental mental health and cognition in the context of one of the world’s largest developing countries and the unique one-child policy, using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We exploit the exogeneity of the first child’s gender and find that having a son has significant protective effects on parents’ mathematics performance and memory functions in one-child families, but such effects are absent in multi-child families. Moreover, we find that the protective effect is more pronounced among one-child families in rural areas than urban areas. Our results suggest the existence of gender inequality in China and reveal the hidden long-term social cost of the one-child policy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T14:06:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f265a96ba76140b3b078609fcabc3685 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2352-8273 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T14:06:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SSM: Population Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-f265a96ba76140b3b078609fcabc36852022-12-22T03:30:04ZengElsevierSSM: Population Health2352-82732022-06-0118101086The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from ChinaYanran Chen0Ruochen Sun1School of Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, 121 Zhangjialukou, Fengtai District, Beijing, 100070, China; Corresponding author.Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesWith the growing and aging population round the world, it becomes increasingly important to understand what factors impact the mental health and cognition of the older generations in order to design effective interventions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a child’s gender on parental mental health and cognition in the context of one of the world’s largest developing countries and the unique one-child policy, using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). We exploit the exogeneity of the first child’s gender and find that having a son has significant protective effects on parents’ mathematics performance and memory functions in one-child families, but such effects are absent in multi-child families. Moreover, we find that the protective effect is more pronounced among one-child families in rural areas than urban areas. Our results suggest the existence of gender inequality in China and reveal the hidden long-term social cost of the one-child policy.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827322000659AgingMental healthCognitionGender inequality |
| spellingShingle | Yanran Chen Ruochen Sun The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China SSM: Population Health Aging Mental health Cognition Gender inequality |
| title | The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China |
| title_full | The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China |
| title_fullStr | The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China |
| title_short | The impact of Children’s gender on Parent’s mental health and cognition -- evidence from China |
| title_sort | impact of children s gender on parent s mental health and cognition evidence from china |
| topic | Aging Mental health Cognition Gender inequality |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827322000659 |
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