Table 1

Summary of Prior Findings on Intergenerational Mental Health Correlations

StudyCountryDataSurvey DataMaximum Sample SizeHealth OutcomesMain Results
(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)
Johnston, Schurer, Shields (2013)UK1970 British Cohort StudyYes8,194(1) Mother and children (two generations): 9-question subset of the 24-item Malaise Inventory
(2) Mother and grandmother (three generations): 9-question subset of the 24-item Malaise Inventory
(3) Children (three generations): SDQ questionnaire
(2) Two generations: mother–child mental health IC of 0.13* to 0.19* (SD)
(2) Three generations: mother–child mental health IC of 0.31* (SD) and grandmother–child (conditional on mother) of 0.03 (SD)
Hancock et al. (2013)AustraliaGrowing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian ChildrenYes4,069(1) Children: SDQ questionnaire
(2) Parents: Kessler K6 scale of nonspecific psychological distress
(3) Grandparents: reported by parents based on binary question “Did your father/mother suffer from nervous or emotional trouble or depression?”
(1) Additional 1.9*, 0.9*, and 1.2* SDQ points if mother, father, or both parents had mental health problems, respectively
(2) Additional 0.4* (maternal), 0.2 (paternal), 0.5* (maternal), and 0.4 (paternal) SDQ points if grandmothers and grandfathers had mental health problems, respectively
Knight, Menard, Simmons (2014)USANational Youth Survey Family StudyYes1,725Annual substance use frequency (alcohol, marijuana, other drugs) of both parents and childrenElasticities ranging from −0.03 (for other drugs use at ages 12–17) to 0.23* (for alcohol use at ages 18–24)
Eley et al. (2015)SwedenTwin and Offspring Study of SwedenYes876(1) Parental anxiety: 20 items from the Karolinska Scales of Personality
(2) Children anxiety: items from Child Behavior Checklist
(3) Neuroticism based on Eysenck Personality Questionnaire for both parents and children
(1) Anxiety ICCs of 0.02–0.20*
(2) Neuroticism ICCs of 0.03–0.21*
Akbulut-Yuksel and Kugler (2016)USANLSY79Yes19,165Indicator of self-reporting being depressed (sometimes, a moderate amount of this or most of the time during past week) for both mother and childrenMother’s depression increases the likelihood of child being depressed by 9* and 0.3 percentage points for native-born and immigrant children, respectively
Eyal and Burns (2019)South AfricaNational Income Dynamics SurveyYes3,111Center for Epidemiological Studies Short Depression Scale (CES-D 10) for both parents and childrenParental depression increases likelihood of adolescent depression by 31* to 35* percentage points
Bencsik, Halliday, Mazumder (2021)UKBritish Household Panel Survey and UK Household Longitudinal SurveyYes5,292Mental health index based on 5 questions in the Short Form 12 SurveyParents–children IC of 0.22*
Vera-Toscano and Brown (2021)AustraliaHousehold, Income and Labor Dynamics in AustraliaYes1,960Mental health index based on five questions in the Short Form 36 Health SurveyParents–children ICs of 0.18* to 0.21*
This paperNorwayAdministrative health and social security dataNo370,498Medically diagnosed mental health conditions based on ICPC-2 classification (code P)(1) Parent–child mental health IC of 0.05*. Extensive margin: 10* percentage points increase in P(diagnosed)
(2) Extended family–child mental health IC of 0.09*. Extensive margin: 17* percentage point increase in P (diagnosed)
  • Notes: This table summarizes findings from prior research on intergenerational correlations in mental health. Column 1 provides study reference, Column 2 gives the country of origin of the data, Column 3 gives the specific data sets used, Column 4 indicates if the data sets are survey-based, Column 5 provides the maximum sample size used in the paper, Column 6 describes the mental health outcomes used, and Column 7 describes the main findings. ∗ implies that the result is statistically significant at least at the 10 percent level. The lack of asterisk implies that the result is not statistically significant at conventional levels.