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The Association Between Fathers’ Depression and Children’s Socioemotional Development: Evidence from a Longitudinal Household Survey in China

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Abstract

Depression is highly prevalent among parents around the world. Although there has been substantial research on maternal depression, few studies have additionally considered paternal depression and examined the independent and potentially interactive influence between paternal and maternal depression on children’s development. The objectives of this study were to investigate the unique association between paternal depression and children’s later socioemotional development, and explore whether this association was moderated by maternal depression. We used data from the 2012 and 2014 waves of the China Family Panel Studies. We used multivariable linear regression models to examine the association between paternal depression, as measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, and children’s socioemotional development, as measured using the Positive Behaviors Scale. We also explored whether there was effect modification by maternal depression. The sample comprised of 1615 children (Mage = 7.38 years; 48.5% female) and their parents. Twenty-four percent of fathers and 33% of mothers were depressed. We found that paternal depression was negatively associated with children’s socioemotional development (β = − 0.18; 95% CI − 0.31, − 0.03), controlling for maternal depression and other sociodemographic covariates. Moreover, we found that the association was moderated by maternal depression, whereby the negative association was stronger when mothers were not depressed (β = − 0.30; 95% CI − 0.52, − 0.08) versus null when mothers were depressed (β = − 0.02; 95% CI − 0.24, 0.20). Parenting interventions should promote the mental health of fathers, in addition to mothers, as a more holistic and family-based approach for improving both the wellbeing of parents and behavioral development of children.

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  1. Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Joshua Jeong & Zhihui Li

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Peking University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. The present study was deemed exempt from ethics review by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Institutional Review Board, as the China Family Panel Studies data used are publicly available and fully de-identified.

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Jeong, J., Li, Z. The Association Between Fathers’ Depression and Children’s Socioemotional Development: Evidence from a Longitudinal Household Survey in China. Prev Sci 21, 672–680 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01117-3

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