Effects of Postpartum Depression on Parents’ Relationship Status

Nancy E. Reichman, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Hope Corman, Rider University and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Kelly Noonan, Rider University and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

This study uses survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study augmented with information from respondents’ hospital medical records to investigate the effects of a specific and often disabling type of mental illness, postpartum depression, on the parents’ relationship status. The findings contribute to the literature on the effects of mental illness on relationship status by focusing on a relatively common form of mental illness with a clear timing of onset, addressing the potential endogeneity of mental illness, and focusing on parental relationship status beyond a marital/non-marital dichotomy.