Inherited Social Trust and Depression Among Second-Generation Immigrants

This paper estimates the causal effect of culturally inherited social trust on the severity of depressive symptoms among second-generation immigrants. To isolate the impact of inherited social trust on depressive symptoms, I regress the depressive symptoms of second-generation immigrants against the average social trust in their parents' country of origin. Using a sample of second-generation immigrants residing in 22 European countries, I show that a one-standard-deviation increase in inherited social trust reduces the severity of depressive symptoms, as measured by the CES-D8 depression scale, by 6.5% of a standard deviation. Overall, this paper highlights a causal relationship between higher inherited social trust and less severe depressive symptoms among second-generation immigrants.