Progressive Parenting
Pathways of intergenerational transmission of depression: The role of the Fast Track intervention
Laura Gorla et al.
Development and Psychopathology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although depression can be transmitted across generations, less is known about how this cycle can be interrupted. This study examines whether the multilevel Fast Track intervention (clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01653535) disrupts intergenerational transmission of depression. Children at high risk for aggression were randomly assigned to a 10-year control group or intervention targeting parenting and children’s intrapersonal, interpersonal, and academic skills. The original sample included 891 first-generation (G1) participants who reported on their depression and their children’s (second-generation; G2) internalizing problems. At age 34, 374 G2 participants (n = 191 intervention, n = 183 control) reported on their and their children’s (third-generation; G3) emotional difficulties. Mediated path models showed that a cascading model where higher G1 depressive symptoms influence higher G2 childhood depressive symptoms, leading to higher G2 adulthood depressive symptoms, which in turn is connected with greater G3 emotional difficulties, emerged only in the control group. The Fast Track intervention disrupted the pathways from G1 depressive symptoms to G3 emotional difficulties, from G2 childhood depressive symptoms to G2 adulthood depressive symptoms, and from G2 adulthood depressive symptoms to G3 emotional difficulties, highlighting the importance of preventive interventions in altering developmental trajectories of psychopathology.
Exposure to the one-child policy and fertility among Chinese immigrants to the US
Siyuan Lin, Laura Argys & Susan Averett
Review of Economics of the Household, September 2025, Pages 969-1002
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of growing up under China’s One-Child Policy (OCP) on the subsequent fertility of Chinese women. Specifically, we ask if Chinese women exposed to a small-family culture change their own fertility decisions when they migrate to a country with no fertility restrictions. Using data from the American Community Survey (2010–2020) to measure family size, we compare the childbearing decisions of Chinese-born women growing up before and during the OCP who migrated to the US to each other and to women who migrated from other Asian countries/regions from the same birth cohorts. Our findings indicate that Chinese women between the ages of 35-45 exposed to the OCP for a longer duration have significantly fewer children compared to similar women who were not exposed to the OCP. These findings are robust to several specification checks including controlling for an estimate of a woman’s natal family size, assimilation represented by time spent in the US, women’s education, and as expected, are strongest for currently-married women.
Child Maltreatment Investigations and Family Well-being
Katherine Rittenhouse, David Simon & Lindsey Lacey
NBER Working Paper, October 2025
Abstract:
Over one third of children in the U.S. are investigated by the child protection system (CPS) by age 18, but the effects of this interaction on families and children are largely unknown. Investigations aim to protect children from harm and direct services to families in need. However, they also bring the implicit threat of child removal, which can generate both stress and institutional distrust among affected families. Using a regression discontinuity design, we study the impacts of this interaction on child health. Children who are just above the threshold for being “defaulted” into an investigation see a reduction in injuries and an increase in preventative care in the two months following the referral. Effects are consistent across child gender, race and age. Finally, investigations increase the likelihood that a parent is jailed, suggesting that investigations also detect criminal activity within the home. An exploration of mechanisms suggests that it is the investigation, rather than home removal or parental criminal justice system involvement, which improves child health.
Equilibrium effects of abortion restrictions on cohort fertility: Why restricting abortion access can reduce human capital, social welfare, and lifetime fertility rates
Nicholas Lawson & Dean Spears
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, October 2025
Abstract:
The United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has made understanding the impact of abortion laws increasingly important and timely. We investigate recent claims by policymakers that abortion restrictions increase birth rates; we also evaluate consequences for human capital and women’s welfare. We motivate our theoretical contribution by presenting some simple empirical analysis of cross-country associations. These provide no evidence of a significant association between abortion legality and birth rates. Our main contribution is an applied economic theory model. Contrary to some policy claims, but in line with stylized empirical facts, abortion bans can lower equilibrium fertility: An abortion ban might cause women to have more unintended births at young ages, but this could reduce their accumulation of capabilities that would prepare them to have a larger family later. We solve a 2-period version of the model, and simulate it and a 3-period version. If women with more resources can afford to choose more children (because of costs of having, raising, and educating children), then the sign of the effect on lifetime fertility depends on whether the increase in fertility due directly to unintended births is outweighed by the effect on subsequent fertility choices. But either way, abortion restrictions are likely to reduce human capital and harm women’s welfare.
The role of smartphones in adolescent-parent discrepancy in reporting adolescents’ internalizing problems
Cory Carvalho, Kalsea Koss & Niyantri Ravindran
Development and Psychopathology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study examined how early smartphone ownership impacts parent-child informant discrepancy of youth internalizing problems during the transition to adolescence. We used four waves of longitudinal data (Years 1–4) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD; Baseline N = 11,878; White = 52.0%, Hispanic = 20.3%, Black = 15.0%, Asian = 2.1%, Other = 10.5%; Female = 47.8%). Across the full sample, significant parent-child informant discrepancy, such that parents underestimated child reports, appeared at Year 2 (Mage = 12.0) and increased across the remainder of the study (b = −0.21, SE = .042, p < .001, 95%CI [−.29, −.23]). Further, multi-group models indicated that significant parent-child informant discrepancy emerged in the years following initial smartphone acquisition, whereas youth who remained non smartphone owners did not demonstrate such a pattern. Moreover, this discrepancy grew with additional years of smartphone ownership. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on adolescent smartphone use and mental health by documenting a novel, longitudinally observed risk to timely parental detection of mental health problems by early smartphone ownership.
Riding to Opportunity: Geographic and Household Effects from the Orphan Trains
Scott Abrahams & Daniel Keniston
NBER Working Paper, September 2025
Abstract:
Between 1854 and 1929, approximately 200,000 children were transported from East Coast cities to new homes in the American West, motivated by the theory that a change of geography and household environment can transform lives. We leverage quasi-experimental variation in child placements to evaluate both whether being sent West improved outcomes relative to remaining in New York institutions, and whether variation in destination and foster household characteristics affected later life success. Linking tens of thousands of "orphan train" riders and comparable non-relocated children to Census records through 1940, we find no systematic evidence that relocation itself improved adult economic outcomes. Among children sent West, substantial variation in county-level economic opportunities also did not predict adult success. In contrast, the individual foster household income predicts children's later incomes, with an estimated intergenerational elasticity of about 0.2.