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Mothers carry a large part of the burden for a Healthy development of the childpregnancy during their adolescence.
But a large study adds to the growing number of evidence saying that fathers are also responsible for the types of development that help children physically developing, emotionally and cognitive.
Mental distress of fathers is slightly associated with the lower development of the child, in particular cognitive, socio-emotional, language and physics development, according to the Study published Monday In the journal Jama Pediatrics. Researchers have defined mental distress as symptoms or a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, a mixture of the two or stress. The results were particularly true in the perinatal period, which extends from design to two years post-partum.
Meanwhile, the development fetus, the infant then toddler is particularly sensitive to all parents of mental distress, in particular the mother, the experience, according to the study.
“Men are at risk of increased mental distress during the transition to authorship, with prevalence rates in men during the perinatal period of up to 8% for clinical depression, 11% for anxiety and 6% to 9% for high stress,” the authors wrote in the study.
“This represents the most complete world journal to date on the association between the perinatal mental health of fathers and the development of offspring”, “ said Dr. Doryse Hutchinson, principal of the study and associate professor in the Seed’s lifespan of the Deakin University in Australia, by e-mail.
“What stood out was the striking coherence of the trends observed in the results”, Hutchinson, A clinical psychologist, said. “This highlights the importance of supporting fathers if we want to see better results for families.”
Although previous studies have linked the poor mental health of fathers to potential damage to the development of their children, the results were limited by the number of forms of development they have studied or the force of their results.
In addition to expanding this type of research beyond the mother-child pairs, the authors also wanted to fill these research shortcomings. They analyzed the links between paternal depression, anxiety or stress and six types of child development: social-emotional, adaptive, cognitive, language, physics and engine of birth to 18 years.
The factors of socio-emotional development included the ability of a child to establish positive relationships with peers, to act in a way that benefits others, to have a healthy relational attachment, to adapt and to have a healthy temperament. Adaptability has referred to the ability of a child to meet change and manage daily needs. Cognitive development included the health of skills according to the executive function of a child, decision -making, memory, attention, learning, IQ and school performance.
Physical development factors included premature birth, gestational growth and childhood size, weight, growth delay, abdominal pain and sleep health. Referral engine development Fine motor skills, which implies the use of small muscles for actions such as writing or button, and raw motor skills. These latest skills use larger muscles for movements, especially by waving your arm, walking or chewing.
The results come from 84 previous studies totaling thousands of father-child pairs. All studies had followed the participants over time, with a measured mental distress of pregnancy at two years after birth, said Hutchinson. The authors excluded studies with fathers who had a medical condition, taken medication or consumed alcohol or other drugs.
There was no proof of links between paternal mental distress and adaptive and engine development, the study revealed. But it was negligible of small associations with other development results, including socio-emotional, cognitive, linguistic and physical maturation. The most important impacts took place in early childhood, then early childhood, then the environment of childhood.
Associations were also generally stronger for postnatal mental distress than preconception mental distress, “suggesting that the mental state of a father can exert a more direct influence on developing children after birth,” said the authors. A father’s mental distress can affect his sensitivity and reactivity in interactions with his child and disrupt the security of attachment, said Hutchinson.
“The calendar of this review is excellent,” wrote independent experts, Dr. Craig Garfield, Dr. Clarissa Simon and Dr John James Parker by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in a comment on the study. “Fathers spend more time than ever on child care and are increasingly recognized as important contributors to family health and well-being.”
The results confirm well-established evidence of the importance of parenthood favorable to children’s well-being, said Dr. Arwa Nasir, professor of pediatrics at the University of Nebraska medical center in Omaha, Nebraska, by email. Nasir was not involved in the study.
Research on the role that fathers play in the life of their children is important, “added Nasir.” I hope that future research will also clarify all important and wonderful ways that fathers can enrich and support the health and development of their children. »»
What remains unknown
Although the idea of the well -being of a father who influences his child can be a natural conclusion, an inconvenience of the study is his partial dependence on gray literature – unpublished research which, in this case, included doctoral theses and interviews with published study authors who met the criteria but which had not reported relevant data. Of the 674 associations found, 286 came from unpublished work.
However, the authors of the new study said that when they compared their results on the basis of research published with their dependent results of unpublished studies, the new associations remained similar for most of the development categories.
In addition, although the study is “well conceived”, it does not prove a causal relationship and lack of more important context, said Nasir.
“It could simply be that the emotional well-being of fathers and children was affected by the same more important psychosocial factors and the same socioeconomic pressures, such as poverty, structural racism and health disparities,” said Nasir. “The presentation of the association between the mental health of fathers and the results for the health of children isolated from the risks of greater societal factors by presenting fathers as the cause of children’s problems.”
This interpretation can also be stigmatizing, added Nasir. “If the objective is to support the optimal health and development of children, I think that our concentration in research and action should be to explore the means to support parents through economic security, equity and justice.”
The study highlights the importance of assessing and treating the well-being of both parents during health care visits to perinatal times, experts said.
“Borrowing from the old decades of perinatal maternal detection decades for (postpartum depression), clinicians, researchers and political decision-makers can rely on the existing maternal infrastructure to design pararasolary programs and policies that strive to improve the mental health of fathers and families,” wrote Garefield, Simon and Parker.
Parents are the guards of “future generations of society,” added Nasir. “Supporting families’ well-being should be a national priority.”
But to receive help, fathers must speak and honestly answer questions about mental health problems, they added.
“It is important that fathers are aware that becoming a parent can be a difficult period, and that many fathers are going through ups and downs during this period,” said Hutchinson.
The search for support early can make a difference, she added, and it is a force, not a weakness. Fathers can speak with general doctors, therapists or providers in specialized pregnancy or postpartum clinics on mental health symptoms, said Hutchinson. Peer group support and online applications that use mindfulness and Cognitivo-behavioral therapy To help manage moods, can also be effective, she added.
Even if your children are older, it is always too late to prioritize your health, said Hutchinson. Each age and step through the development of the child is important, not just a period of time.