The mental health of a child's mother during pregnancy is widely
considered a risk factor for emotional and behavioral problems later in
the child's life. Now a new study finds that the father's mental health
during the pregnancy also plays a role.
The study of nearly 32,000 children in Norway, reported today in Pediatrics,
is the largest yet to suggest that a risk for future mental health
problems in young kids may be identified early on by examining the
prenatal mental health of the fathers.
It found that children
whose fathers scored highly for psychological distress, depression and
anxiety at week 17 or 18 of the baby's gestation had higher levels of
emotional and behavioral difficulties at age 3, including disruptive
behavior, anxiety and problems getting along with other children.
Information
was collected from fathers who answered questions on a screening
questionnaire about their mental health status during the pregnancy.
Mothers later answered questions about their children's development and
difficulties.
Even after controlling for factors such as the
father's age, marital status, physical ailments, alcohol use, cigarette
smoking and the mother's mental health status, researchers found the
same association between expectant fathers' mental health and problems
developing later in the child, says lead study author Anne Lise
Kvalevaag of Helse Fonna Hospital in Haugesund, Norway.
The data
collected did not address how or why this association exists, but
several "possible mechanisms" could be at work, she says. One
possibility is a genetically transmitted risk to the child, she says. Or
depression in the father could affect the mental health of the mother
in such a way that the neonatal development of the child is affected.
Another possibility: The father's prenatal mental state could predict
his mental state after the child's birth, which "may also account for
some of the associations found," she says.
Only 3% of the fathers
in the study had high levels of mental health problems, so these
findings don't mean that every child with a depressed father will have
problems, says James Paulson,? an associate professor of psychology at
Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. "But when this is viewed across a
large population, the effects of prenatal paternal distress are a
substantial public health problem." Paulson, who studies depression in
families, was not involved in the new study.
In the past decade,
"Researchers have learned that paternal postpartum depression presents
many of the same risks to developing children that are well-documented
in maternal postpartum depression," says Paulson. The new study "found
that depression in fathers during pregnancy poses risks that are similar
to postpartum depression - a finding that mirrors what we know about
depression in pregnancy for mothers, but which hasn't previously been
documented in fathers.
"For parents and physicians, the message
should be clear," says Paulson. "We need to be aware of depression (in)
both parents from the time a pregnancy is realized. This study suggests
that physicians should screen for depression early and often, and make
the appropriate referral as soon as it's detected."
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