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Fewer Behavior Problems When
Dad is Involved
 A recent study reported in
Science Daily (August 15, 2007) found that even if the mother is depressed, when
fathers are actively engaged in family life, children are much less likely to
engage in behavior problems according to a researcher from St. Louis University
in St. Louis, Missouri.
It is a well-recognized
phenomenon that when mothers are depressed there is a much higher risk among
children of such behavior problems as anxiety, depression, aggression, and
hyperactivity. The report found that during these times, when fathers are
actively engaged in family life and has positive relationships with his
children, they are much less likely to experience these behavior problems.
This 10-year population based
study, recently reported in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and
Adolescent Medicine may be the first to examine the father’s role in a family
where the mother is depressed. . The St. Louis University principal researcher
Jen Jen Chang Ph.D, assistant professor of community health in epidemiology at
the St. Louis University School of Public Health concluded that "my study
corroborates findings of previous research that a child is at increased risk of
problem behaviors when the mother is depressed." She went on to state that "But
once we factored in a father’s positive involvement, I observe that the adverse
impact of the mother's depression was attenuated. The father served as a
buffer. He may have engaged with children when the mother wasn’t available due
to her illness."
In order to determine the
involvement of the fathers, children 10 years old and older were asked how often
their father talked over important decisions with them; whether he listened to
their side of an argument; whether he knew where they were when not at home;
whether their father missed events or activities that were important to them;
and how close they felt to their father.
The unique quality of Chang's
research is not only that it provided insight into the father's role in the
household of a depressed mother, but also because of its longitudinal nature in
which it followed children into adolescence with multiple assessments. She
accessed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth which is a
government funded study of ethnically and economically diverse men and women and
their experiences in the labor market. This study contained important
information about the biological children of these women and men, including the
social and behavioral functioning of each child. It included 6552 child/mother
pairs and assessed behavior problems every two years.
Chang commented that some of
the important implications for intervention based upon her results are that; "I
would advocate for health professionals to educate parents, specifically
fathers, to be more involved with their children when their wives are diagnosed
with depression. Mothers play an important role in a child's life. When she's
mentally ill, the child is going to have difficulty, the whole family suffers.
Fathers are in a position to negate that but may need health professional’s
guidance."
The researcher went on to state
that her study was actually inspired by her own family experiences in which her
sister suffered from mental illness, and witnessed the impact and difficulty on
her sister and the larger extended family. She stated that; “My research has
become a personal quest and I hope it will bring more focus to the issue of
maternal depression.” She concluded that "Healthcare professionals must do a
better job of screening for this debilitating and under-diagnosed illness.”
She next plans to study the
effect of a mother's depression on the risk of a child developing a
substance-abuse problem, and whether a father’s involvement may also reduce the
risk in those circumstances as well.
Information adapted from a August 15, 2007 research report from Science Daily
Additional information and
webpage by
Paul Susic MA Licensed Psychologist Ph.D Candidate (Health
Psychology
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