There is growing recognition of the consequences of a person’s health and illness experience for the health and wider welfare of those close to them. However, estimation of these health spillovers is challenging. This study adopts a longitudinal approach to examine maternal mental health spillovers associated with various forms of child illness and disability.
Dynamic panel models are used in estimating maternal mental health spillovers related to 7 subcategories of chronic child illness and disability. In particular, we use longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Ireland study and a system generalized method of moments approach. We also consider heterogeneity in these spillovers by the severity of the child’s illness/disability and by household deprivation.
We find that a child’s experience of chronic nervous system conditions and chronic mental and behavioral disorders are associated with 10.8 and 5.1 percentage point increases in the probability of maternal depression, respectively. Similar associations were not observed for other health conditions. Spillover magnitude is also found to be strongly related to illness/disability severity. Finally, subsample analyses reveal a larger association between severe child illness and maternal depression among deprived households.
This analysis, in observing health spillovers related to certain disease categories but not others, draws further attention to their context specificity. Our findings also further corroborate calls for inclusion of caregiver and family member outcomes in the economic evaluation of child health services and support consensus guidelines for collection of these outcomes alongside patient outcomes in clinical trials.
This research looks at how a child's health problems can impact the mental well-being of their mothers. Understanding these "spillover" effects is important because they shed light on the broader consequences of a child's illness or disability, not just for the child, but also for family members, particularly caregivers like mothers. The study uses data from a long-term survey called Growing Up in Ireland to analyze how different types of child health issues, including chronic physical and mental health conditions, affect maternal mental health over time.
The analysis finds that a child’s experience of chronic nervous system disorders is associated with a significant increase in the probability of maternal depression—by about 10.8 percentage points. Similarly, chronic mental and behavioral disorders in children are associated with a 5.1 percentage point increase in maternal depression. Interestingly, the strength of the association was found to relate to the severity of the child’s condition and the household's economic status.
These findings support calls for including the mental health outcomes of caregivers in evaluations of child health services. By better understanding the interconnectedness of child and maternal health, health policy makers will be more fully equipped to address the needs of families facing chronic health challenges.
The study emphasizes the importance of understanding health spillovers in the context of child health services and suggests that future research should consider these impacts when assessing the effectiveness of interventions for children. Overall, this analysis provides valuable insights for patients, healthcare decision makers, and researchers about the substantial consequences that child health issues may have for the mental well-being of parents, particularly mothers.