Peer Gender and Mental Health
(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:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/33ed8306-b634-40e3-80c1-3b071d7095a8
- author
- Getik, Demid LU and Meier, Armando
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-07-17
- 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
- alternative location
- https://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_013.htm
- date added to LUP
- 2020-09-02 10:54:32
- date last changed
- 2021-10-29 12:05:25
@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://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2020_013.htm}},
year = {{2020}},
}