A Longitudinal Study of Fathers’ and Young Children’s Depressive Symptoms

Abstract

Considerable research has examined the effects of maternal depression on children, but few studies have focused on the relation between paternal and child depressive symptoms, particularly during early childhood. Even fewer studies have been longitudinal, leaving open questions about how paternal and child depression covary over time. The present study sought to address this gap by examining the relation between fathers’ and children’s depressive symptoms over a 3-year period. Participants were 153 preschool children with behavior problems and their parents. Three longitudinal analytic approaches were used to examine how father and child depression change together and predict one another over time. Additional analyses examined whether externalizing problems or maternal depression might account for the associations between fathers’ and children’s depressive symptoms. Changes in paternal depression significantly predicted changes in father-reported and mother-reported child depressive symptoms. These effects were evident both in year-to-year fluctuations and in linear trajectories across the 3-year period. Cross-lagged analyses suggested that these relations may have been driven by father-effects; paternal depression at one time point predicted child depression at the next time point, but child depression did not significantly predict later paternal depression. We found little evidence that externalizing problems or maternal depression accounted for the relations between fathers’ and children’s depressive symptoms. Results provide convergent evidence that fathers’ depression may play an important role in the development of depressive symptoms in young children and underscore the importance of including fathers in studies of depression in families.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to the families who participated in this study and to staff from physicians’ offices and community centers who assisted in recruiting families.

FUNDING

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01MH60132.

Notes

¹ This model is not empirically identified if one more predictor is added. There are four data points per subject, and the current model uses all four degrees of freedom per person: intercept, time, paternal depression, and residual. To expand the model to include one more predictor, and thus five terms per person, at least five data points per person would be required.

² Because both parents rated children’s depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors, there were four of these models: one using father-reported depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors, one using mother-rated depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors, one using father-reported depressive symptoms and mother-rated externalizing behaviors, and one using mother-reported depressive symptoms and father-reported externalizing behaviors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01MH60132.