Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272552 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15925
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study the formation of social and emotional skills in the first three years of life, and investigate the impact of a cluster-randomized peer-led psychosocial intervention targeting perinatally depressed mothers in rural Pakistan. The intervention significantly improved maternal mental health, especially among mothers of boys. It resulted in imprecisely estimated increases in parental investment, and modest but transitory improvements in child's socioemotional skills. A descriptive analysis of mechanisms reveals that the intervention modified the production function of children's skills, by lowering the productivity of maternal mental health in the first 12 months of life. It moved outcomes for depressed women closer to outcomes for women not depressed during pregnancy.
Subjects: 
child development
RCT
socioemotional
stress
mental health
technology of skill formation
gender
JEL: 
D1
I1
J1
O2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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