Working Paper: NBER ID: w10435
Authors: Janet Currie; Mark Stabile
Abstract: One in five U.S. youngsters has a mental disorder, but we know little about the effects of these disorders on outcomes. We examine U.S. and Canadian children with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the most common child mental health problem. Our innovations include the use of large nationally representative samples of children, the use of questions administered to all children rather than focusing only on diagnosed cases, and the use of sibling fixed effects to control for omitted variables. We find large negative effects on test scores and schooling attainment suggesting that mental health conditions are a more important determinant of average outcomes than physical health conditions.
Keywords: ADHD; Child Mental Health; Human Capital; Educational Outcomes
JEL Codes: I2; I1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| ADHD symptoms (D91) | probability of grade repetition (C29) |
| ADHD symptoms (D91) | special education placement (I24) |
| ADHD symptoms (D91) | future reading scores (C29) |
| ADHD symptoms (D91) | future mathematics scores (C12) |
| income (E25) | treatment probabilities (C22) |
| ADHD symptoms (D91) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| income (E25) | educational outcomes (I26) |