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The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition
Since the 1990s, the burden of disease associated with poor mental health has continued to rise in South Africa. One third of South Africans will suffer from poor mental health in their lifetime if either parent also suffers from poor mental health, and this intergenerational transmission effect of...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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School of Economics
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613338628784128 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mthembu, Simeme |
| author2 | Eyal, Katherine |
| author_browse | Eyal, Katherine Mthembu, Simeme |
| author_facet | Eyal, Katherine Mthembu, Simeme |
| author_sort | Mthembu, Simeme |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Since the 1990s, the burden of disease associated with poor mental health has continued to rise in South Africa. One third of South Africans will suffer from poor mental health in their lifetime if either parent also suffers from poor mental health, and this intergenerational transmission effect of depression is large and highly significant. Previous work has attempted to investigate whether it is nurture or nature effects which drive this large transmission effect. While this work has found that it is primarily environmental factors which account for this transmission of depression from mother to child, this does not properly identify the extent of each component, and in which contexts the one is more important than the other. Despite the prevalence of poor mental health, the intergenerational transmission of mental illness in South Africa is equally understudied. Investigating whether this intergenerational transmission of depression is a causal effect or merely a correlation poses a major challenge for inference. This thesis estimates causality in the intergenerational transmission effect of depression from parent to individual, and finds that parental depression is the the single largest determinant of individual depression. That is, individuals with depressed parents are more likely to suffer from depression themselves. This thesis also attempts to explore vulnerability and resilience to this transmission effect and finds that a mother's depression is the largest and most important determinant of transmission of depression from a father. The opposite is also true - a father's depression is the single and largest determinant of transmission of depression from a mother. Upon further investigation of the key determinants of resilience or vulnerability to transmission using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (lasso) model, this paper finds that hardly any other genetic or environmental characteristics have been found to be significant determinants of transmission. Parental depression alone has the largest effect on whether an individual is resilient or vulnerable to transmission from another parent. This paper finds that the environment does not seem to have as large of an effect on resilience or vulnerability to transmission of depression as was previously thought in the literature - only parental depression seems to have an effect on transmission of depression. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37665 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:34:33.896Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | School of Economics |
| publisherStr | School of Economics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37665 The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition Mthembu, Simeme Eyal, Katherine Economics Since the 1990s, the burden of disease associated with poor mental health has continued to rise in South Africa. One third of South Africans will suffer from poor mental health in their lifetime if either parent also suffers from poor mental health, and this intergenerational transmission effect of depression is large and highly significant. Previous work has attempted to investigate whether it is nurture or nature effects which drive this large transmission effect. While this work has found that it is primarily environmental factors which account for this transmission of depression from mother to child, this does not properly identify the extent of each component, and in which contexts the one is more important than the other. Despite the prevalence of poor mental health, the intergenerational transmission of mental illness in South Africa is equally understudied. Investigating whether this intergenerational transmission of depression is a causal effect or merely a correlation poses a major challenge for inference. This thesis estimates causality in the intergenerational transmission effect of depression from parent to individual, and finds that parental depression is the the single largest determinant of individual depression. That is, individuals with depressed parents are more likely to suffer from depression themselves. This thesis also attempts to explore vulnerability and resilience to this transmission effect and finds that a mother's depression is the largest and most important determinant of transmission of depression from a father. The opposite is also true - a father's depression is the single and largest determinant of transmission of depression from a mother. Upon further investigation of the key determinants of resilience or vulnerability to transmission using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (lasso) model, this paper finds that hardly any other genetic or environmental characteristics have been found to be significant determinants of transmission. Parental depression alone has the largest effect on whether an individual is resilient or vulnerable to transmission from another parent. This paper finds that the environment does not seem to have as large of an effect on resilience or vulnerability to transmission of depression as was previously thought in the literature - only parental depression seems to have an effect on transmission of depression. 2023-04-04T09:34:17Z 2023-04-04T09:34:17Z 2022 2023-04-04T07:50:09Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37665 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce |
| spellingShingle | Economics Mthembu, Simeme The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition |
| title_full | The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition |
| title_fullStr | The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition |
| title_short | The Intergenerational Transmission Effect of Depression: Causality, Resilience & Decomposition |
| title_sort | intergenerational transmission effect of depression causality resilience decomposition |
| topic | Economics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37665 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mthembusimeme theintergenerationaltransmissioneffectofdepressioncausalityresiliencedecomposition AT mthembusimeme intergenerationaltransmissioneffectofdepressioncausalityresiliencedecomposition |