Depression Risk Higher In Adolescents With Depressed Dads
Adolescents with fathers who exhibit symptoms of depression are more likely to also exhibit those symptoms, according to the findings of a recent study. This association was similar in magnitude to the effects of maternal depression on adolescent depression.
For their study, the researchers examined data from 2 prospective cohort studies that included 2-parent families: Growing up in Ireland (GUI; N=6070 families) and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N=7768 families). Depressive symptoms in fathers were measured when children were age 9 in the GUI cohort and when children were age 7 in the MCS cohort. Adolescent depressive symptoms were assessed using the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) when children were age 13 in the GUI cohort and when children were age 14 in the MCS cohort.
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After adjusting for all confounders, the researchers found that 1 standard deviation increase in paternal depressive symptoms was associated with an increase in SMFQ points by 0.24 and 0.18 among the GUI cohort and MCS cohort, respectively. Additionally, their analysis showed that this association was independent of, and not different in magnitude to, the association between maternal and adolescent depressive symptoms.
“Our results show an association between depressive symptoms in fathers and depressive symptoms in their adolescent offspring,” the researchers concluded. “These findings support the involvement of fathers as well as mothers in early interventions to reduce the prevalence of adolescent depression, and highlight the importance of treating depression in both parents.”
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
Lewis G, Neary M, Polek E, Flouri E, Lewis G. The association between paternal and adolescent depressive symptoms: evidence from two population-based cohorts [published online November 15, 2017]. Lancet Psychiatry. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30408-X.