The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia

Bubonya, Melisa; Cobb-Clark, Deborah A.; Christensen, Daniel; Johnson, Sarah E.; Zubrick, Stephen R.

doi:10.3390/ijerph16040537

Open AccessArticle

The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia

by

Melisa Bubonya

^1,2,*,

Deborah A. Cobb-Clark

^1,2,3

,

Daniel Christensen

^2,4

,

Sarah E. Johnson

⁴ and

Stephen R. Zubrick

^2,4,5

¹

School of Economics, Level 5, Social Sciences Building, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

²

ARC Centre of Excellence for Families and Children over the Life Course, University of Queensland, Level 2, Cycad Building (1018), 80 Meiers Rd, Indooroophilly, QLD 4068, Australia

³

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5-9, 53113 Bonn, Germany

⁴

Telethon Kids Institute, Northern Entrance, Perth Children’s Hospital, 15 Hospital Ave, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia

⁵

Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(4), 537; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040537

Submission received: 12 December 2018 / Revised: 30 January 2019 / Accepted: 11 February 2019 / Published: 13 February 2019

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances of Adolescents and Children Health Research)

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of “shocks” to community-level unemployment expectations, induced by the onset of the Great Recession, on children’s mental well-being. The Australian experience of the Great Recession represents a unique case study as despite little change in actual unemployment rates, levels of economic uncertainty grew. This affords us the ability to examine the effects of shocks to economic expectations independent of any actual changes to economic conditions. We draw on and link data from multiple sources, including several waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (2004–2010), a consumer sentiment survey, and data on local economic conditions. Using our purpose-built data set, we estimate difference-in-differences models to identify plausibly causal effects. We find, for boys, there is no detectable effect of community-level unemployment expectations shocks on mental health. For girls, however, there are modest increases in mental health problems and externalizing behaviors, as measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). We additionally find no discernible change in mother’s psychological distress as a result of expectations shocks. These results are stable after controlling for actual labor market conditions.

Keywords: mental health; children; economic recession; macroeconomic; consumer sentiment; Australia; longitudinal studies

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MDPI and ACS Style

Bubonya, M.; Cobb-Clark, D.A.; Christensen, D.; Johnson, S.E.; Zubrick, S.R. The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 537. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040537

AMA Style

Bubonya M, Cobb-Clark DA, Christensen D, Johnson SE, Zubrick SR. The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(4):537. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040537

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bubonya, Melisa, Deborah A. Cobb-Clark, Daniel Christensen, Sarah E. Johnson, and Stephen R. Zubrick. 2019. "The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 4: 537. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040537

APA Style

Bubonya, M., Cobb-Clark, D. A., Christensen, D., Johnson, S. E., & Zubrick, S. R. (2019). The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(4), 537. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040537

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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