Father's mental health is an emerging area of interest that is beginning to be recognized in research, and to a lesser extent in clinical practice and society. Fathers are part of a parenting dyad with 2 partners who are responsible for their children's emotional development. Similar to mothers, the risk for mental health problems increases once a male becomes a father, but there is limited research examining this issue. The purpose of this review is to present the available literature on father's mental health and its effect on child emotional health through various mechanisms. In general, father's mental health was found to be related to increased child internalizing and externalizing behaviors, but each disorder had different risk factors, and a unique effect on parenting behaviors and the child's emotional health. The most developed paternal mental health literature is focused on depression. However, key conceptual and methodological problems exist that may limit our understanding of paternal depression. Additionally, the focus on paternal depression may not accurately represent the largest risk for paternal psychopathology and the resultant child mental health outcomes because men have an increased likelihood of displaying externalizing behaviors. Implications for research, clinical practice, and policy are discussed.
Interventions for diet-treated CI require a focus on diet and weight, but may increase the risk for disordered eating. Future research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms that transform standard treatment practices into pathological eating, including characteristics and behaviors of the child, parents/care providers, family, and treatment providers.
Similar to maternal depression, paternal depression may have adverse effects on the family environment (e.g., partner mental health, child behavior). Detection of paternal depression is rare because the maternal-child health care system usually only screens for maternal depression. The scarcity of paternal depression screening and detection is due to fathers not usually being involved in the maternal-child health care system and, therefore, unavailable for depression screening. The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric characteristics of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale-Partner Version (EPDS-P) in detecting paternal depression through maternal report. The EPDS-P, rated by the mother, was found to be a reliable and valid measure of paternal depression when compared to other well-validated measures of depression. The EPDS-P has clinical utility in the maternal-child health care system by making it possible to screen for paternal depression without the father being present. Proxy screening for paternal depression can be beneficial for early detection and treatment of paternal depression both in the perinatal period and through a child's early life. Detection and treatment of paternal depression reduces the risk of long-term depression in fathers.
Maternal postpartum depression has been linked to later internalizing and externalizing behaviors in offspring; whereas, the consequences of paternal postpartum depression have received little attention. Further, research has produced inconsistent findings regarding mechanisms accounting for the link between postpartum depression and subsequent child behaviors. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to extend previous research by examining simultaneously the unique effects of maternal and paternal postpartum depression on child behaviors, and exploring the potential mediating roles of later depression and interparental conflict. The study included a sample of 199 couples whose index child was an average age of 4.5 months at the postpartum assessment and 45.5 months at the toddlerhood assessment. Findings suggest that both maternal and paternal depression in the postpartum period set the stage for future parental depression and interparental conflict. Parental depression during toddlerhood was associated with child internalizing and externalizing behaviors and represents a primary mechanism through which postpartum depression is linked to child behaviors for both male and female children. Interparental conflict was not a significant mediator, but may have an indirect role in internalizing and externalizing behaviors through its associations with parental depression. Clinical implications include the need for pediatric primary care providers to routinely implement systematic screening practices for parental mental health and to provide referrals to couples and parenting programs when depression is detected.
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