The impact of Children's gender on Parent's mental health and cognition -- evidence from China. (June 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Yanran; Sun, Ruochen
• Is Part Of: SSM - population health. Volume 18(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Subjects: Aging -- Mental health -- Cognition -- Gender inequality; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101086
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-8273

Abstract

Abstract: 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. Highlights: Provide new empirical evidence to better understand gender preference in the context of contemporary China. Investigate the effect of a child's gender on parents' mental health by exploiting the exogeneity of the first child's gender in China. Focus on multidimensional mental health including depression symptoms, mathematics performance, and memory functions. Examine the heterogeneity and mechanisms to show important policy implementations to address gender inequality in China.