Depressive mood in men after the birth of their offspring in relation to a partner's depression, social support, fathers' personality and prenatal expectations

Abstract

The paper describes results of the study of fathers' depressed mood during the postpartum period. It was hypothesized that the most important factors in the development of depressed mood in men would be those linked to current situation and not those related to men's individual characteristics. Thus, men whose partners were depressed would reveal more depressive symptoms. It was also expected that depressed mood in men would be related to low social support, negative economic situation of a family, low quality of marital relationship and prenatal expectations concerning life with an infant. Eighty couples were asked to complete a set of questionnaires including the EPDS. The responses revealed that depression was present not only in mothers but also in fathers. The multivariate analyses confirmed initial assumptions—the most important correlates of depressed mood in men were as follows: the level of women's depression, the high discrepancy between prenatal expectations and experiences related to family and social life after childbirth, and low satisfaction with the marital relationship. Fathers' neuroticism and age were not related to depression.