Research summary: Canada Child Benefit and Adults’ Mental Health

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Why this study

Mental health problems have been estimated to cost the Canadian economy about $50 billion every year.^{Footnote 1} This includes money spent on healthcare, people missing work, and people having a lower quality of life. The most common mental health issues in Canada are mood disorders (like depression) and anxiety disorders.^{Footnote 2} These conditions affect Canadians with low incomes more often than others.

The government introduced the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) in July 2016 to support families with the cost of raising children. The CCB is a tax-free income-tested monthly payment given to families with children. The CCB helps to reduce poverty, improve well-being and past studies showed that the CCB helped reduce food insecurity. This new study looks at how the CCB affects the mental health of adults, especially for those with mood disorders and anxiety. It also looks at other signs of well-being, like how people feel about their general health, mental health, life satisfaction, and stress.

What we did

We used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2015-2016, 2017-2018, and 2019 cycles. The CCHS is a national survey that includes people from across Canada. We compared two groups:

• adults living with children under 18
• adults without children

We looked at how people feel about their health, including:

• mood
• anxiety, and
• their general health, mental health, life satisfaction and stress

To see how the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) affects how people feel about their health, we used an analytical method called difference-in-differences (DiD). This helped us compare changes in health between the two groups before and after the introduction of the CCB. We used a probit model to estimate the effects of the policy change.

What we found

Receiving the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) reduced probability of experiencing mood disorders in adults living with children under 18 years of age by 7 percentage points. This effect corresponds to an estimated average of about 53,000 fewer cases of poor mood status each year between 2017 and 2019 attributable to the CCB.

We also looked at subgroups:

• gender
• income
• age
• family type, and
• homeownership

Analysis revealed no significant differences within any single subgroup. This means that the CCB's impact on mood disorders was consistent within each one of these demographic characteristics.

We looked at other health indicators as well, such as:

• general health
• general mental health
• life satisfaction, and
• stress

In the short term, no statistically significant changes were seen in anxiety or any of these health indicators. This is likely because these impacts usually need more time and bigger changes in lifestyle and living conditions to show measurable improvements. This means that it is important to keep exploring the effect of the CCB in future work over the longer term.

What it means

This study shows that giving families financial support through the CCB can improve adult mental health, especially by lowering the incidence of mood disorders. This has important lessons for policy design. Maintaining the availability of the CCB for all eligible families supports fairness across different types of recipients including:

• men and women
• low- and middle-income households, and
• both single-parent and couple-headed families

The absence of statistically significant differences in the impact between these recipients indicates that the CCB is equitable. Equity was a key factor in the design of the CCB.

In terms of economic impact, better mental health could lead to lower healthcare costs and fewer work problems. This would support stronger labour market participation and higher productivity in the future.

As getting the CCB has positive effects in the short term on the mood disorders of adults with young families, exploring its longer-term impacts would be helpful for future policy development.

Contact us

Strategic and Service Policy Branch, Social Policy Directorate, Social Research Division

Email: esdc.nc.sspb.research-recherche.dgpss.cn.edsc@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca