Externalities of the personality traits: The effect of peer personality on students’ mental health
Abstract
This study examines the role of peer personality in shaping the mental health of adolescent students. We use data from the China Education Panel Survey and focus on schools that implement random class assignment to identify causal peer effects. Exploiting the exogenous variation in peer personality across classes within the same school and grade, we find that peer openness significantly improves students’ mental health, while the effect of peer persistence is negligible. Moreover, a mechanism analysis reveals that the beneficial effects of peer openness operate through improvements in classroom environment and teacher–student relationships.