Child Development Accounts, Mother's Depressive Symptoms, and Marital Status Change

Background and Objective: Economic strain and marital status stability interactively affects mothers’ mental health. This study aims to investigate whether Child Development Accounts (CDAs), as a policy intervention for long-term economic development, buffer adverse effects of marital status change on mother’s depression. Child Development Accounts (CDAs) provide a structured opportunity of asset accumulation for children’s long-term development. CDAs promote financial capability with incentives, information, and awareness of financial preparation.  

Methods: We employ data from SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK), a statewide randomized experiment of CDAs. The focal children were randomly selected from the 2007 birth records. Primary caregivers (mostly mothers) of 2,704 children agreed to participate in the study and completed the baseline survey in 2007-2008. Before SEED OK intervention started, they were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 1,358) or control group (n = 1,346). Both groups did not differ in observed characteristics at baseline. Built on the existing Oklahoma state 529 Plan, the SEED OK intervention include financial incentives (e.g. savings matches for income eligible households and initial deposits), information on college savings and child development, and education materials. A follow-up SEED OK survey was conducted in 2011. The dependent variable is mother’s depressive symptoms measured using a shortened Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in the follow-up survey (range 0 to 12). One independent variable is treatment group status, and the other independent variable is marital status over two time points (1=stayed married, 2=married at baseline but not in follow-up, 3=not married at baseline but married in follow-up, 4=stayed unmarried). Control variables include demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of child, parents, and family, in addition to mother’s depression at baseline. We conduct OLS regression analyses. Model 1 tests main effects of treatment and marital status change, and Model 2 estimates interaction effects of treatment status and marital status.        

Results: 

The main effect model (Model 1) demonstrates that those who were married at baseline but not in the follow-up (b= .30, p=.02) and those who were not married at both times (b= .22, p=.03) report significantly higher levels of depression, compared to those who stayed married. Model 1 also shows a significant treatment effect on mother’s depressive symptoms (b= -.16, p=.02). The model 2 presents significant interaction effects of treatment status and marital status on mother’s depression. In the treatment group, mother’s depression do not significantly differ among four groups of marital status. However, in the control group, those who were married at baseline but not in the follow-up and those who were not married at both times show significantly worse depression, compared to those who stayed married.

Discussion and Implications: The study finds that the association between mother’s depressive symptoms and marital status varies by treatment group status. The findings support our hypothesis that CDAs mitigate negative effects of marital status on mother’s depressive symptoms. Asset-building programs like CDAs may play critical roles in lessening adverse consequences of non-intact or unstable family structure on mother’s mental health and child’s development.