Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Advanced

Peer Gender Composition and Mental Health: Evidence from Administrative Data

Getik, Demid LU (2020) In Working Papers
Abstract (Swedish)
Adolescent mental health is key for later well-being. Yet, causal evidence on environmental drivers of adolescent mental health is scant. I study how an important classroom feature - gender composition in compulsory-school - affects mental health. I exploit Swedish register data (N = 576,285) to link variation in gender composition across classrooms within cohorts to mental health diagnoses. The results indicate that a higher share of female peers in one's class reduces mental health, particularly among boys. The effects persist after students' transition to a different high-school class. Peer composition can thus be an important and persistent driver of early mental health.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Gender, Peer effects, Mental health, I19, I21, J16
in
Working Papers
issue
2020:13
pages
43 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
33ed8306-b634-40e3-80c1-3b071d7095a8
alternative location
https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_013.htm
date added to LUP
2020-09-02 10:54:32
date last changed
2020-09-02 10:54:32
@misc{33ed8306-b634-40e3-80c1-3b071d7095a8,
  abstract     = {Adolescent mental health is key for later well-being. Yet, causal evidence on environmental drivers of adolescent mental health is scant. I study how an important classroom feature - gender composition in compulsory-school - affects mental health. I exploit Swedish register data (N = 576,285) to link variation in gender composition across classrooms within cohorts to mental health diagnoses. The results indicate that a higher share of female peers in one's class reduces mental health, particularly among boys. The effects persist after students' transition to a different high-school class. Peer composition can thus be an important and persistent driver of early mental health.},
  author       = {Getik, Demid},
  language     = {eng},
  month        = {07},
  note         = {Working Paper},
  number       = {2020:13},
  series       = {Working Papers},
  title        = {Peer Gender Composition and Mental Health: Evidence from Administrative Data},
  url          = {https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_013.htm},
  year         = {2020},
}