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Impact of a Father Figure’s Presence in the Household on Children’s Psychiatric Diagnoses and Functioning in Families at High Risk for Depression

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Abstract

The consequences of living in single-parent households on children’s wellbeing are well documented, but less is known about the impact of living in single-mother households among children with high familial risk for depression. Utilizing data from an ongoing three-generation study of high-risk families, this preliminary study examined a sample of 161 grandchildren of probands diagnosed with major depressive disorder, comparing those in single-parent households to those in dual-parent households with household status defined as the full-time presence of a resident male in the home. High-risk children were compared across households in terms of psychiatric diagnoses (measured by Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children; K-SADS-PL) and global functioning (assessed by Global Assessment Scale, child version; C-GAS). Results indicated that high-risk children in single-parent households had 4.7 times greater odds for developing a mood disorder and had significantly lower mean C-GAS scores (p = 0.01) compared to those in dual-parent households. Differences remained significant when controlling for household income, child’s age, and either parent’s depression status. There were no significant differences between high-risk children across households when household status was instead defined as legal marital status. This study has several limitations: sample size was small, probands were recruited from a clinical population, and participants had not passed completely through the period of risk for adult psychiatric disorders. These findings point towards the importance of identifying and closely monitoring children at risk for depression, particularly if they reside in households without a resident father figure.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Myrna Weissman, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry at Columbia University, whose original work and data contributed to the current manuscript. This research is supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01 MH-036197 (PI: Myrna M. Weissman). Helen Verdeli is supported by National Institute of Mental Health K23 Award (MH071530). Ardesheer Talati receives funding from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (1 K01 DA029598-01, Talati, PI). The funders of this research had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, the writing of this paper, or in the decision to submit it for publication.

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None of the authors of this manuscript have any potential or actual conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W. 120th Street, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Karen Shoum Teel, Helen Verdeli & Eleni Vousoura

  2. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Helen Verdeli

  3. Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Priya Wickramaratne & Ardesheer Talati

  4. Division of Epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Priya Wickramaratne, Virginia Warner & Ardesheer Talati

  5. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Emily E. Haroz

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  1. Karen Shoum Teel
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Correspondence to Karen Shoum Teel.

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Teel, K.S., Verdeli, H., Wickramaratne, P. et al. Impact of a Father Figure’s Presence in the Household on Children’s Psychiatric Diagnoses and Functioning in Families at High Risk for Depression. J Child Fam Stud 25, 588–597 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0239-y

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