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Maternal Psychological Well-Being and Offspring’s Outcomes in Peru: A Quantitative Analysis

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between maternal psychological well-being and specific outcomes amongst children and adolescents in Peru. First, it assesses the impacts of maternal depression and life satisfaction on health and life satisfaction of children. Then, it evaluates the impacts of maternal psychological well-being on adolescent risk behavior. Prior research focuses predominately on effects in developed country contexts, but this paper aims to shed light on the impacts in an impoverished setting. Using panel data from the Young Lives Survey, the author finds that children’s self-reported life satisfaction and health positively associate with maternal life satisfaction and negatively associate with maternal depression. Furthermore, maternal life satisfaction predicts whether female adolescents smoke, while maternal depression predicts smoking and misinformation on pregnancy amongst males. The findings suggest that maternal depression and life satisfaction both affect reported health, happiness, and risk behaviors in offspring.

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Notes

  1. Maternal education is separated into the following categories: no education, some primary school, completed primary, some secondary school, completed secondary, some technical/pedagogical school, completed technical/pedagogical school, some university, completed university, completed masters degree.

  2. The percent of mothers experiencing depression in the community is not used as an IV for models that deal with maternal happiness because the IV does not strongly correlate with the variable being instrumented, maternal happiness.

  3. This variable is only included in the appendix tables because many data for birth weight are unavailable.

  4. For a full description of socioeconomic characteristics in Peru, the sample used in this paper, and regional samples, see table 43 in Appendix 8. Note that figures for Peru are typically for the year 2015 or 2017, while figures for the full sample (and different regions) are for the year 2013 (Round 4 of Young Lives).

  5. See Appendix 1 for tables that include a control for children’s birth weight.

  6. See Appendix 2 for tables that display ordered logit results.

  7. Indigenous ethnicity is dropped from the fixed effects models because it remains consistent across time.

  8. See Appendix 3 for tables that examine effects by gender.

  9. See Appendix 4 for tables that include the lagged specification.

  10. See Appendix 5 for tables that display coefficients for logit models.

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Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without support from the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and the Brookings Institution. The author also acknowledges Young Lives for providing access to the data and for meeting with the author to discuss the data collection process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy, Rubenstein Hall, Durham, NC, 27704, USA

    Sarah W. Dickerson

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  1. Sarah W. Dickerson
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Correspondence to Sarah W. Dickerson.

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There is no conflict of interest to declare. The author has no affiliation with any institution or organization with any financial or non-financial interests in the outcomes of this work.

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Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Dr. Carol Graham, Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow and Research Director at the Brookings Institution, provided access to the data used in this paper as part of her research collaborations with the author. Dr. Graham has a user agreement with Young Lives.

Appendices

Appendix 1: OLS Tables (including Birth Weight of Children)

Table 9 Maternal Happiness and Child Health with Birth Weight
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Table 10 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Health with Birth Weight
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Table 11 Maternal Happiness and Child Happiness with Birth Weight
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Table 12 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Happiness with Birth Weight
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Appendix 2: Ordered Logits

Table 13 Maternal Happiness and Child Health, Ordered Logit
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Table 14 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Health, Ordered Logit
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Table 15 Maternal Happiness and Child Happiness, Ordered Logit
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Table 16 Maternal Depression and Child Happiness, Ordered Logit
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Appendix 3: Gender-specific Findings

Table 17 Maternal Happiness and Child Health by Gender, Fixed Effects
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Table 18 Maternal Happiness and Child Health by Gender, Pooled OLS
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Table 19 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Health by Gender, Pooled OLS
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Table 20 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Health by Gender, Fixed Effects
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Table 21 Maternal Happiness and Child Happiness by Gender, Pooled OLS
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Table 22 Maternal Happiness and Child Happiness by Gender, Fixed Effects
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Table 23 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Happiness by Gender, Pooled OLS
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Table 24 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Happiness by Gender, Fixed Effects
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Appendix 4: Lagged Variables

Table 25 Lagged Maternal Happiness and Child Health
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Table 26 Lagged Maternal Depression and Child Health
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Table 27 Lagged Maternal Happiness and Child Happiness
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Table 28 Lagged Maternal Depression and Child Happiness
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Appendix 5: Logit models for Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Table 29 Maternal Happiness and Whether Adolescent Smokes, Logit
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Table 30 Reported Maternal Depression and Whether Adolescent Smokes, Logit
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Table 31 Maternal Happiness and Misinformation on Pregnancy, Logit
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Table 32 Reported Maternal Depression and Misinformation on Pregnancy, Logit
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Appendix 6: Mean Marginal Effects for Adolescent Risk Models

Table 33 Reported Maternal Depression and Adolescent Smoking with IV, Mean Marginal Effects
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Table 34 Reported Maternal Depression and Misinformation on Pregnancy with IV, Mean Marginal Effects
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Appendix 7: Regional Impacts

Table 35 Maternal Happiness and Child Happiness by Region
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Table 36 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Happiness by Region
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Table 37 Maternal Happiness and Child Health by Region
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Table 38 Reported Maternal Depression and Child Health by Region
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Table 39 Maternal Happiness and Whether Adolescent Smokes by Region
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Table 40 Reported Maternal Depression and Whether Adolescent Smokes by Region
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Table 41 Maternal Happiness and Misinformation on Pregnancy by Region
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Table 42 Reported Maternal Depression and Misinformation on Pregnancy by Region
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Appendix 8. Key Socioeconomic Characteristics

Table 43 Key Socioeconomic Characteristics
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Dickerson, S.W. Maternal Psychological Well-Being and Offspring’s Outcomes in Peru: A Quantitative Analysis. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 527–571 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09757-6

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