Dark Passage: Mental health consequences of parental death

Abstract

We study the effects of parental death on children’s mental health. Combining nationwide administrative data for Finnish citizens born between 1971 and 1986, we utilize an event study methodology to analyze hospitalization for mental health–related reasons by the age of 30. We find no clear evidence of increased hospitalization following the death of a parent of a different sex, but there are significant effects for boys losing their fathers and, to a lesser extent, girls losing theirmothers.We analyze the effects in a country that has committed substantial financial resources to implement school health care for all pupils. In countries where such policies do not exist or where the coverage of primary health-care services in schools is not universal, the negative effects on mental health may arguably be even larger.