The Effect of Children on Depression in Old Age

Content This article investigates the causal relationship between the number of biological children and mental health of elderly Europeans. Specifically, we ask whether additional children improve or threaten parents' mental health status. Our identication draws on two natural experiments that exogenously increase the number of children: multiple births and the sex composition of the first two children. This setup allows us to identify the effect of expected and desired and unexpected additional children on mental health. Using a large and extensive survey of elderly Europeans, we find that additional children can exert a negative causal effect on mental health of females namely on the likelihood of depression and the use of antidepressant drugs. There is no evidence for a causal effect of having additional children on the probability to suffer from depression for elder men.