Over recent years, more and more attention has been given to postpartum and peripartum depression. As mothers have begun to share their stories more openly—and tragedies involving postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis have been covered with more nuance in the news media—the broader discussion has very likely led to increased awareness and more people being connected to the help they need.
But conversations about parental mental health shouldn’t stop with mothers, and they shouldn’t stop as the baby grows older. In fact, new research suggests that when a father experiences depression, the effects on his children can be pervasive. The study, led by Kristine Schmitz at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, appeared recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study was analyzed, which included a random sample of births among 20 large American metropolises from 1998 to 2000. That original study is ongoing and continues to track the child and parent participants. To read the full story.