The Unseen Impact: How Father’s Mental Health Can Affect Children for Years to Come

When we think of happy families, we often imagine a loving mother and father who are supportive and present in their children’s lives. However, the reality is that fathers can struggle with mental health issues just like mothers, and when this happens, it can have a profound impact on their children.

Research from Rutgers Health has shown that when paternal depression goes undiagnosed or unaddressed, the negative social and behavioral effects on children can persist for years. In fact, a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that children exposed to paternal depression when entering kindergarten are far more likely to have teacher-reported behavioral difficulties and poor social skills at age 9.

The study, led by Kristine Schmitz, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, analyzed data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a national birth cohort that randomly sampled births in 20 large U.S. cities from 1998 to 2000.

The researchers found that children whose fathers reported depressive symptoms when they were age 5 were significantly more likely to exhibit restlessness, defiance, and anger as well as present lower levels of cooperation and self-esteem by the time they were age 9.

Schmitz emphasized the importance of considering depression in both parents, not just mothers. “Depression is treatable, and to support the whole family, pediatricians must start talking with dads about it and developing father-focused interventions that meet their needs,” she said.

The study’s findings suggest that interventions to identify and support fathers with depressive symptoms, and their children, could help attenuate the link between paternal depression and child behavior in school. By acknowledging and addressing paternal depression, we can improve not only fathers’ well-being but also the well-being of their children.

As Schmitz said, “As parents, we can model that when we struggle, we reach out and get help. That’s a lesson children will carry for a lifetime.”

Nurturing our children with love and affection in their early years may have a lasting impact on their personality traits and life outcomes. Research has shown that positive maternal parenting can foster important qualities like openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.

According to Jasmin Wertz, PhD, lead author of the study, “Personality traits are strong predictors of important life outcomes, from academic and career success to health and well-being.” The findings suggest that fostering a positive parenting environment in early childhood can have a small but significant impact on the development of these crucial personality traits.

The research examined data from 2,232 British identical twins who were followed from birth through age 18. Researchers found that twins whose mothers expressed more warmth toward them in childhood were rated as more open, conscientious, and agreeable as young adults.

The results offer evidence that positive, affectionate mothering can affect key personality traits linked to success later in life. Even modest changes in personality could lead to significant population-wide benefits over time, particularly in promoting conscientiousness, which is strongly associated with success in education, work, and health.

However, researchers also found no lasting associations between maternal affection and extraversion or neuroticism. This suggests that other environmental or genetic factors may be more influential for these traits in adulthood.

The findings underscore the importance of considering both genetic and environmental factors when designing programs aimed at promoting positive personality traits. Wertz believes the research provides valuable evidence for the potential of parenting programs to influence critical aspects of personality development.

The study also highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of how different factors, including genetics, parenting, and life experiences, interact to shape who we are. As Wertz notes, “This research provides important practical considerations for policymakers and practitioners working in education, family welfare, and mental health.”

Given that conscientiousness may predict success in school and the workplace, interventions designed to enhance affectionate parenting could contribute to improving educational outcomes, mental health, and social well-being on a broader scale. By targeting parenting practices that promote positive traits in childhood, it may be possible to reduce disparities in life outcomes associated with socioeconomic background, family dynamics, and other environmental factors.

The way we respond to death can vary greatly, even among humans. A recent study by UCL anthropologists has revealed that primate mothers, specifically macaques, exhibit different bereavement responses compared to humans. This groundbreaking research provides valuable insights into the complex and intriguing field of evolutionary thanatology – the study of death, bereavement, and grief across different species.

Published in Biology Letters, the researchers found that bereaved macaque mothers showed a short period of physical restlessness after their infant’s death, but did not display typical human signs of grief like lethargy and appetite loss. In fact, they spent less time resting than non-bereaved females during the first two weeks following their infants’ deaths.

The researchers suggest that this initial restlessness might represent an initial period of “protest” among the bereaved macaque mothers, similar to what is observed in studies on mother-infant separation in primates. However, unlike humans, this “protest” phase was not followed by an extended period of despair or other behavioral markers of grief commonly associated with human behavior.

This study is significant because it represents the first systematic investigation into whether primate mothers display similar behavioral responses to death as seen in human grief. The researchers observed the behavior of 22 macaque mothers at the Caribbean Primate Research Center on Cayo Santiago, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Half of the macaques observed (11) had recently lost an infant (on average 16 days prior), while the other non-bereaved half acted as a control group.

Behavioral observations were categorized into resting, feeding, grooming, and displacement behaviors, which were recorded by the researchers over a 16-day period using smartphones with CyberTracker software. The results show that there was no difference in time spent foraging, grooming, or doing displacement behaviors among bereaved macaques compared to non-bereaved ones.

This study provides a fascinating contribution to the emerging field of evolutionary thanatology and raises important questions about whether grief is a uniquely human experience. As co-author Dr Alecia Carter notes, “Following the loss of an infant, we had expected the macaque mothers to spend more time resting, as is common among bereaved humans. What we actually observed was the opposite.”

Lead author MSc student Emily Johnson adds, “Death is an inevitable part of life and how we respond to death can vary greatly, even among humans. We wanted to explore how the behavioral response to death, the experience of grief, differs between primates and humans.”