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Peer Gender and Mental Health

Getik, Demid LU and Meier, Armando (2020) In Working Papers
Abstract
Adolescent mental health is key for later well-being. Yet, causal evidence on environmental drivers of adolescent mental health is scant. We study how an important classroom feature---the gender composition in compulsory-school---affects mental health. We use Swedish administrative data ($N=576,285$) to link variation in gender composition across classrooms within cohorts to mental health. We find that a higher share of female peers in a classroom increases the incidence of mental health diagnoses, particularly among boys. The effect persists into adulthood. Peer composition is thus an important and persistent driver of mental health.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
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
date added to LUP
2020-09-02 10:54:32
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:00:31
@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. We study how an important classroom feature---the gender composition in compulsory-school---affects mental health. We use Swedish administrative data ($N=576,285$) to link variation in gender composition across classrooms within cohorts to mental health. We find that a higher share of female peers in a classroom increases the incidence of mental health diagnoses, particularly among boys. The effect persists into adulthood. Peer composition is thus an important and persistent driver of mental health.}},
  author       = {{Getik, Demid and Meier, Armando}},
  keywords     = {{Gender; Peer effects; Mental health; I19; I21; J16}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2020:13}},
  series       = {{Working Papers}},
  title        = {{Peer Gender and Mental Health}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/194582500/WP20_13.pdf}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}