Paternal mental health both during and after pregnancy may influence the child's mental health, but not in the way researchers expected, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology.
The study pulled data from the first trimester of pregnancy until a child grew to 6 to 8 years of age from 2,366 mother-father-child triads.
Perinatal assessments focused on parental depression, anxiety, stress symptoms and psychosocial measures, such as highest education received, quality of marriage index and parenting perceptions during the pregnancy.
The study found that prenatal paternal mental health was moderately predictive, while concurrent paternal mental health was highly predictive of the child's cognitive performance in middle childhood, but not in an adverse way as the researchers hypothesized.
Researchers discovered a link between mild symptoms of anxiety and depression in fathers and fewer behavioral difficulties and better scores on a standardized IQ test in early childhood.
Slightly higher levels of symptoms of depression reported by fathers during pregnancy were associated with a reduction in behavioral and emotional difficulties in their child at about 6 to 8 years of age. When fathers reported slightly higher levels of anxiety or depression during their children's childhood years, their children were found to have higher IQs.
The researchers, from McGill University in Montreal, said more research is needed to understand how paternal mental health influences children's behavior and cognition, and the findings may not be generalized to fathers who experience clinical levels of depression and anxiety.