More for Kids
The global rise in children's attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder prevalence: A macro-sociological explanation
Irem Tuncer-Ebetürk, Jessica Kim & Yasemin Nuhoğlu Soysal
Social Forces, June 2026, Pages 1607-1629
Abstract:
In the past three decades, the global diagnosis rate of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown drastically. While existing sociological studies demonstrate the complexity of ADHD diagnoses and treatment in specific national contexts, their ability to explain ADHD's global growth is limited. In this article, starting from a macro-sociological perspective and drawing on world society theory, we empirically investigate the prevalence of ADHD diagnosis rates across 135 countries from 1996 to 2019. We find that the increasing rates of ADHD diagnosis worldwide since the 1990s are linked to two interconnected global cultural processes: (1) the global rise and institutionalization of child-centered cultural perspectives and (2) the global diffusion of narratives that define ADHD as a health condition impairing children's well-being and development. Our findings do not support alternative explanations such as a nation's level of development (measured by GDP, poverty, democracy, and tertiary enrollment rates) or healthcare quality and universal access. These findings highlight the substantial influence of global conceptions of childhood and health on ADHD prevalence rates worldwide, while downplaying the importance of national conditions. We contribute to the existing sociological literature on ADHD in two key ways. First, by conducting the first cross-national, longitudinal study of ADHD worldwide we provide novel insights about ADHD prevalence at the world level while identifying the key global factors driving this trend. Second, in merging the existing ADHD literature with the analytical frameworks advanced by world society theory, we introduce a new conceptualization of ADHD as not only a medical disability but also a global cultural phenomenon and institutional priority.
The Empathy Channel in Fertility
Sebastian Galiani & Raul Sosa
NBER Working Paper, April 2026
Abstract:
Being around babies makes people want babies. We formalize this observation as the empathy channel: exposure to infants in the social environment activates neurobiological mechanisms that increase the desire for parenthood. As children become scarcer, this affective stimulus weakens, further eroding the motivation to have children. We embed the mechanism in a two-group overlapping-generations quantity-quality model. The empathy channel generates a positive externality, since each birth raises others' desire for children, making the decentralized equilibrium inefficient. We characterize the optimal per-child subsidy and show that the first-order Pigouvian rate substantially overshoots the general-equilibrium optimum. The optimal targeting rule follows a Ramsey-like logic, directing the subsidy at the group with the most externality per fiscal dollar, not the group with the largest externality per child. The calibrated model suggests that the empathy channel can account for 3-33% of the fertility decline, with 13.4% at the baseline. At this baseline, the Pigouvian overshoot is 23-32% and the optimal subsidy raises welfare by 0.22% in consumption-equivalent terms.
Do Baby Bonuses Increase Fertility? Evidence From Michigan
Jonathan Hartley & Benjamin Jaros
Stanford Working Paper, April 2026
Abstract:
This paper studies the fertility effects of the Rx Kids program, the first baby bonus introduced in the United States. Beginning in 2024, the program was launched in Flint, Michigan and subsequently expanded to additional municipalities across Michigan, creating staggered variation in treatment timing across places. Using Michigan administrative birth records and a municipality-level staggered difference-in-differences design, we estimate the effect of Rx Kids on birth outcomes. We find that live birth growth rates increase in treated municipalities after adoption, even when accounting for moving from adjacent municipalities. We find that Flint's $7,500 baby bonus generates a small but statistically significant fertility response: actual 2024 births exceeded a three-year pre-treatment baseline by roughly 7.5%, implying $107,000 in program spending per induced birth. These results provide the first U.S. evidence that direct cash transfers tied to childbirth can measurably affect fertility behavior. We also present a version of the Barro-Becker model in which a baby bonus lowers the effective cost of childbearing and increases fertility as well as a lifecycle model with fiscal accounting to measure the indirect implications for the marginal fiscal value of an induced birth.
The Collapse of Teen Fertility in the Digital Era
Nathan Hudson & Hernan Moscoso Boedo
University of Cincinnati Working Paper, April 2026
Abstract:
Teen fertility collapsed globally starting around 2007. This affected countries across the income and policy spectrum. This paper argues that smartphones changed how teens spend time with each other, and that this change in turn drove the collapse in teen fertility. Once enough teens are on the phone, being on the phone is where the peer network is; in-person time falls sharply, and with it the unstructured contact in which most unintended teen conceptions occur. A coordination model formalizes this tipping: as the smartphone price falls, the in-person equilibrium ceases to exist and the economy moves to a phone-mediated one. Within the United States, terrain-ruggedness variation in broadband and 4G coverage identifies a causal effect on teen fertility, and time-use diaries show in-person socializing among teens roughly halving while digital leisure roughly tripled. A parallel design for England and Wales recovers the same acceleration and the same effect of mobile coverage on teen conceptions, ruling out country-specific contraceptive-access and welfare-reform stories. The model predicts that the shift towards the phone-mediated equilibrium affects multiple aspects of teen behavior. The same instrument that produces a collapse in teen fertility produces a surge in teen suicides.
National Patterns in STEM Degree and Career Outcomes for Single Parent Students: Evidence from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (2016) and Baccalaureate and Beyond (2016/2020) Surveys
Betul Iscan et al.
Research in Higher Education, May 2026
Abstract:
Single parent students remain an understudied population in STEM education research, despite facing substantial financial, time, and caregiving constraints. This study examines STEM degree completion and early labor market outcomes of single parent students using nationally representative data. Focusing on students who declared STEM majors and persisted into their senior year, the study compares STEM degree completion rates by single parent student status. It also examines students who earned STEM degrees to assess persistence in STEM occupations and income levels one and four years after graduation by single parent student status. The results indicate that single parent students who reach their senior year complete STEM degrees at rates comparable to those who are not single parent students. Among STEM graduates, single parent graduates demonstrate similar persistence in STEM careers and comparable income one and four years after graduation. The findings suggest that inequities in the STEM pipeline for single parent students may be concentrated earlier in the undergraduate years, particularly in STEM major enrollment and persistence in college. Future research should examine STEM major enrollment by single parent student status and employ longitudinal designs to analyze rates of STEM persistence and degree completion conditional on initial STEM enrollment by single parent student status. Mixed-methods studies are needed to examine how early academic performance and STEM-specific self-efficacy shape long-term educational and career trajectories in STEM for single parent students.