History, College of Medicine: 1959-1968. Chapter 9: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Prepared for the Centennial of The Ohio State University

How Does Household Income Affect Child Personality Traits and Behaviors?

Existing research has investigated the effect of early childhood educational interventions on the child's later-life outcomes. These studies have found limited impact of supplementary programs on children's cognitive skills, but sustained effects on personality traits. We examine how a positive change in unearned household income affects children's emotional and behavioral health and personality traits. Our results indicate that there are large beneficial effects of improved household financial wellbeing on children's emotional and behavioral health and positive personality trait development. Moreover, we find that these effects are most pronounced for children who are lagging behind their peers in these measures before the intervention. Increasing household incomes reduce differences across adolescents with different levels of initial emotional-behavioral symptoms and personality traits. We also examine potential channels through which the increased household income may contribute to these positive changes. Parenting and relationships within the family appear to be an important mechanism. We also find evidence that a sub-sample of the population moves to census tracts with better income levels and educational attainment

Does More Money Make You Fat? The Effects of Quasi-Experimental Income Transfers on Adolescent and Young Adult Obesity

This paper examines how exogenous income transfers during adolescence affect contemporaneous body mass index (BMI) measures and young adult obesity rates using evidence from the Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth. The effects of extra income differ depending on the households’ initial socio-economic status, tracing out an inverted U-shaped relationship between initial income and BMI. Youths who resided in families that had high pre-treatment annual incomes experience no change in young adult obesity rates as a result of the income transfers, while the BMI of poorer children increases. Part of this effect is due to differential increases in height, as well as weight. An exogenous annual transfer of $4,000 per adult family member results in an almost 4 cm gain in height-for-age. Adolescents coming from worse-off households experience an increase in weight only, without the corresponding change in height. The cumulative effects of the increase in household income persist for several years into young adulthood.obesity, health, cash transfer, adolescents, indigenous peoples

Parents’ Incomes and Children’s Outcomes: A Quasi-Experiment

Identifying the effect of parental incomes on child outcomes is difficult due to the correlation of unobserved ability, education levels and income. Previous research has relied on the use of instrumental variables to identify the effect of a change in household income on the young adult outcomes of the household’s children. In this research, we examine the role that an exogenous increase in household incomes due to a government transfer unrelated to household characteristics plays in the long run outcomes for children in affected households. We find that children who are in households affected by the cash transfer program have higher levels of education in their young adulthood and a lower incidence of criminality for minor offenses. These effects differ by initial household poverty status as is expected. Second, we explore two possible mechanisms through which this exogenous increase in household income affects the long run outcomes of children – parental time (quantity) and parental quality. Parental quality and child interactions show a marked improvement while changes in parental time with child does not appear to matter.quasi-experiment, criminality, cash transfer programs, difference-in-differences, educational attainment, panel data

Irritable mood as a symptom of depression in youth:prevalence, developmental, and clinical correlates in the great smoky mountains study

ObjectiveDSM-IV grants episodic irritability an equal status to low mood as a cardinal criterion for the diagnosis of depression in youth, yet not in adults; however, evidence for irritability as a major criterion of depression in youth is lacking. This article examines the prevalence, developmental characteristics, associations with psychopathology, and longitudinal stability of irritable mood in childhood and adolescent depression.MethodData from the prospective population-based Great Smoky Mountains Study (N = 1,420) were used. We divided observations on 9- to 16-year-olds who met criteria for a diagnosis of depression into 3 groups: those with depressed mood and no irritability, those with irritability and no depressed mood, and those with both depressed and irritable mood. We compared these groups using robust regression models on adolescent characteristics and early adult (ages 19–21 years) depression outcomes.ResultsDepressed mood was the most common cardinal mood in youth meeting criteria for depression (58.7%), followed by the co-occurrence of depressed and irritable mood (35.6%); irritable mood alone was rare (5.7%). Youth with depressed and irritable mood were similar in age and developmental stage to those with depression, but had significantly higher rates of disruptive disorders. The co-occurrence of depressed and irritable mood was associated with higher risk for comorbid conduct disorder in girls (gender-by-group interaction, F1,132 = 4.66, p = .03).ConclusionsOur study findings do not support the use of irritability as a cardinal mood criterion for depression. However, the occurrence of irritability in youth depression is associated with increased risk of disruptive behaviors, especially in girls

Does more money make you fat? The effects of quasi-experimental income transfers on adolescent and young adult obesity

This paper examines how exogenous income transfers during adolescence affect contemporaneous body mass index (BMI) measures and young adult obesity rates using evidence from the Great Smoky Mountains Study of Youth. The effects of extra income differ depending on the households' initial socio-economic status, tracing out an inverted U-shaped relationship between initial income and BMI. Youths who resided in families that had high pre-treatment annual incomes experience no change in young adult obesity rates as a result of the income transfers, while the BMI of poorer children increases. Part of this effect is due to differential increases in height, as well as weight. An exogenous annual transfer of $4,000 per adult family member results in an almost 4 cm gain in height-for-age. Adolescents coming from worse-off households experience an increase in weight only, without the corresponding change in height. The cumulative effects of the increase in household income persist for several years into young adulthood

Parents' incomes and children's outcomes: a quasi-experiment

Identifying the effect of parental incomes on child outcomes is difficult due to the correlation of unobserved ability, education levels and income. Previous research has relied on the use of instrumental variables to identify the effect of a change in household income on the young adult outcomes of the household´s children. In this research, we examine the role that an exogenous increase in household incomes due to a government transfer unrelated to household characteristics plays in the long run outcomes for children in affected households. We find that children who are in households affected by the cash transfer program have higher levels of education in their young adulthood and a lower incidence of criminality for minor offenses. These effects differ by initial household poverty status as is expected. Second, we explore two possible mechanisms through which this exogenous increase in household income affects the long run outcomes of children - parental time (quantity) and parental quality. Parental quality and child interactions show a marked improvement while changes in parental time with child does not appear to matter

Long-term Outcomes of Childhood Family Income Supplements on Adult Functioning

ImportanceDuring an ongoing longitudinal cohort study, a casino opening created a natural cash transfer experiment. Some participating families received income supplements, and others did not. The children in this study are now adults.ObjectiveTo assess the long-term outcomes of family income supplements received in childhood.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis community-representative longitudinal cohort study set in western North Carolina assessed 1266 participants aged 9, 11, and 13 years at intake up to 11 times up to age 30 years from January 1993 to December 2015. Data were analyzed from January to December 2021.ExposuresIn 1996, a southeastern American Indian tribe implemented a cash transfer program of approximately $5000 annually per person for tribal members. Participants were compared on whether their family ever received the cash transfers (American Indian vs non–American Indian), the duration of the transfers, and annual amount based on the number of parents.Main Outcomes and MeasuresParticipants were followed up at ages 25 and 30 years to assess mental health symptoms, substance use symptoms, and functional outcomes (physical health, risky or illegal behaviors, and financial and social functioning).ResultsOf 1266 included participants, 320 (25.3%) were American Indian and 581 (49.7%) were female. Participants whose families received cash transfers during childhood reported fewer anxiety symptoms (relative risk [RR], 0.33; 95% CI, 0.25-0.44), depressive symptoms (RR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.42-0.62), and cannabis symptoms (RR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.27-0.82). They also reported improved physical health (RR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.55-0.80) and financial functioning (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.67-0.89) and fewer risky or illegal behaviors (RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.46-0.72) compared with those who did not receive the cash transfer. This pattern was supported by a series of heterogeneity analyses in which children whose families received the transfers for the longest duration and whose families received the largest transfer (due to having multiple American Indian parents) had the lowest levels of symptoms and the highest levels of functioning.Conclusions and RelevanceIn this natural experiment, a family cash transfer in childhood was associated with positive adult functioning 20 years later. The findings support programs like the child tax credit or universal basic income that provide cash directly to families with children

Longitudinal Patterns of Anxiety From Childhood to Adulthood: The Great Smoky Mountains Study

The aims of this study were twofold: 1) to provide a brief introduction to the prospective, longitudinal Great Smoky Mountains Study and review recent findings; and 2) to use this sample to conduct an epidemiologic analysis of common childhood anxiety disorders

Adult Functional Outcomes of Common Childhood Psychiatric Problems: A Prospective, Longitudinal Study

Psychiatric problems are among the most common health problems of childhood