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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Sign up for CNN\u2019s Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n Mothers bear much of the burden for a child\u2019s healthy development<\/a>, from pregnancy through their teen years.\n <\/p>\n \n But a large, new study adds to the growing body of evidence saying fathers, too, are responsible for the types of development that help children grow physically, emotionally and cognitively.\n <\/p>\n \n Fathers\u2019 mental distress<\/a> is slightly associated with subpar child development, including cognitive, social-emotional, language and physical development, according to the study published Monday<\/a> in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. <\/strong>The researchers defined mental distress as symptoms or a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, a mix of both or stress. The findings were especially true in the perinatal period, which spans from conception to two years postpartum.\n <\/p>\n \n During this time, the developing fetus, infant then toddler is particularly sensitive to any mental distress parents, especially the mother, experience, according to the study.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMen are at risk of increased mental distress during the transition to fatherhood, with prevalence rates among men during the perinatal period as high as 8% for clinical depression, 11% for anxiety, and 6% to 9% for elevated stress,\u201d the authors wrote in the study.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis represents the most comprehensive global review to date on the association between fathers\u2019 perinatal mental health and offspring development,\u201d said Dr. Delyse Hutchinson, senior author of the study and associate professor in the SEED Lifespan Research Centre at Deakin University in Australia, via email.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhat stood out was the striking consistency in the trends observed in the results,\u201d Hutchinson, <\/strong>a clinical psychologist, said. \u201cThis highlights the importance of supporting fathers if we want to see better outcomes for families.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n While previous studies have linked fathers\u2019 poor mental health with potential harms on their children\u2019s development, the results were limited by the number of forms of development they investigated or the strength of their results.\n <\/p>\n \n In addition to expanding this kind of research beyond mother-child pairs, the authors also wanted to fill those research gaps. They analyzed ties between paternal depression, anxiety or stress and six types of child development: social-emotional, adaptive, cognitive, language, physical and motor development from birth to age 18. \n Factors of social-emotional development included a child\u2019s ability to form positive relationships with peers, act in ways that benefit others, have healthy relational attachment, self-soothe and have a healthy temperament. Adaptability referred to a child\u2019s ability to respond to change and manage daily needs. Cognitive development included the health of a child\u2019s executive function skills, decision-making, memory, attention, learning, IQ and academic performance.\n <\/p>\n \n Physical development factors included preterm birth, gestational growth and childhood height, weight, stunting, abdominal pain and sleep health. Motor development referred<\/a> to fine motor skills, which involve the use of small muscles for actions such as writing or buttoning, and gross motor skills. Those latter skills use larger muscles for movements including waving your arm, walking or chewing.\n <\/p>\n \n The findings derive from 84 previous studies totaling thousands of father-child pairs. All studies had followed participants over time, with mental distress measured from pregnancy to two years post birth, Hutchinson said. The authors excluded studies with fathers who had a medical condition, took medication or consumed alcohol or other drugs.\n <\/p>\n \n There was no evidence for links between paternal mental distress and adaptive and motor development, the study found. But there were negligible to small associations with the other developmental outcomes including social-emotional, cognitive, language and physical maturation. The largest impacts were in early childhood, then infancy, then middle childhood.\n <\/p>\n \n The associations were also generally stronger for postnatal mental distress than preconception mental distress, \u201csuggesting that a father\u2019s mental state may exert a more direct influence on the developing child after birth,\u201d the authors said. A father\u2019s mental distress may affect his sensitivity and responsiveness in interactions with his child and disrupt attachment security, Hutchinson said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe timing of this review is excellent,\u201d wrote independent experts Dr. Craig Garfield, Dr. Clarissa Simon and Dr. John James Parker of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital in a commentary<\/a> on the study. \u201cFathers spend more time than ever on childcare and are increasingly recognized as important contributors to family health and well-being.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The results affirm well-established evidence of the importance of supportive parenting on the well-being of children, said Dr. Arwa Nasir, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, via email. Nasir wasn\u2019t involved in the study.\n <\/p>\n \n Research on the role that fathers play in the lives of their children is important,\u201d Nasir added. \u201cI hope future research will also clarify all the important and wonderful ways that fathers can enrich and support the health and development of their children.\u201d What remains unknown<\/p>\n \n Though the idea of a father\u2019s well-being influencing his child could be a natural conclusion, one drawback of the study is its partial reliance on gray literature \u2014 unpublished research that, in this case, included doctoral theses and interviews with authors of published studies that met criteria but hadn\u2019t reported relevant data. Of the 674 associations found, 286 were from unpublished work.\n <\/p>\n \n However, the authors of the new study said when they compared their findings based on published research with their results reliant on unpublished studies, the new associations remained similar for most categories of development.\n <\/p>\n \n Additionally, while the study is \u201cwell-designed,\u201d it doesn\u2019t prove a causal relationship and lacks larger context, Nasir said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt could simply be that both fathers and children\u2019s emotional wellbeing are impacted by the same larger psychosocial factors and socioeconomic pressures, such as poverty, structural racism and health disparities,\u201d Nasir explained. \u201cPresenting the association between fathers\u2019 mental health and children\u2019s health outcomes in isolation from the larger societal factors risks presenting the fathers as the cause of children\u2019s problems.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n This interpretation can also be stigmatizing, Nasir added. \u201cIf the goal is supporting optimal health and development of children, I believe our focus in research and action should be exploring ways that society can support parents through economic security, equity, and justice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The study emphasizes the importance of assessing and treating the well-being of both parents during health care visits in the perinatal period, experts said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBorrowing from the decades-old strategy of perinatal maternal screening for (postpartum depression), clinicians, researchers, and policymakers can build on the existing maternal infrastructure to design father-tailored programs and policies that strive to improve the mental health of fathers and families,\u201d Garfield, Simon and Parker wrote.\n <\/p>\n \n Parents are the guardians of \u201csociety\u2019s future generations,\u201d Nasir added. \u201cSupporting the well-being of families should be a national priority.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But to receive help, fathers have to speak up and honestly answer questions about mental health concerns, they added.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s important for fathers to be aware that becoming a parent can be a challenging period, and that many fathers go through ups and downs during this time,\u201d Hutchinson said.\n <\/p>\n \n Seeking support early can make a difference, she added, and it\u2019s a strength, not a weakness. Fathers can talk with general physicians, therapists or providers at specialized pregnancy or postpartum clinics about mental health symptoms, Hutchinson said. Peer group support and online apps that use mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy<\/a> to help manage moods can also be effective, she added.\n <\/p>\n \n Even if your children are older, it\u2019s still never too late to prioritize your health, Hutchinson said. Every age and stage across child development is important, not just one period in time.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children’s health Mental health Maternal health Women’s health See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 Sign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-189881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114694977446117588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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