CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 151Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumFamily Dynamics and Relationships

The effects of early paternal depression on children's development

Fletcher, Richard J, Feeman, Emily, Garfield, Craig, Vimpani, Graham·2011·Medical Journal of Australia
DOI 10.5694/mja11.10192
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of paternal depression during children's first year on their wellbeing at 4-5 years of age using a large, representative sample of Australian families. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective study of Australian families from 2004 to 2008. Two-biological-parent families (n = 2620) from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were included if depression measures were available for both parents in 2004, behavioural and developmental measures were available for children in 2008, and the families had not separated by 2008. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Child scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and on a set of Derived Outcome Indices, measured when the child was 4-5 years old. Logistic regression modelling was used to investigate how early paternal depression in 2004 influenced child outcomes 4 years later. RESULTS: Early paternal depression was a significant predictor of a range of poorer child outcomes (odds ratio [OR] for behavioural difficulties, 3.34 [95% CI, 3.06-3.65]; OR for a low development and wellbeing score, 2.70 [95% CI, 2.44-2.98]). These effects remained significant after controlling for both early maternal depression and later paternal depression (adjusted OR for behavioural difficulties, 1.93 [95% CI, 1.75-2.14]; OR for a low development and wellbeing score, 1.65 [95% CI, 1.48-1.85]). CONCLUSIONS: Depression in fathers during the first year of a child's life can have a detrimental impact on their child's behaviour, and social and emotional development at the point of school entry, in addition to and uniquely compared with depression in mothers. Early intervention to identify and address the mental health needs of fathers is required for the benefit of fathers, children and families.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.5694/mja11.10192

Cites

23 of 23 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Drop-out figures are reported in all but two studies, and missing data calculation is reported in a minority.

    “With regards to attrition rates, drop-out figures are reported in all but two of the studies (Fletcher et al. 2011;Gross et al. 2008) and the calculation of missing data to account for any potential bias of the dropouts is reported in a minority of studies”

    From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Fletcher et al. 2011

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Fletcher, R. J., Feeman, E., Garfield, C., & Vimpani, G.
Affiliations
  • University of Newcastle Australia (AU)
  • Endeavor Health (US)
Corresponding author
Fletcher, Richard J
ORCID
Venue
Medical Journal of Australia
Publisher
AMPCo
Published
2011-12
Volume
195
Issue
11-12
Pages
685-689
ISSN
  • 0025-729X (ISSN-L)
  • 1326-5377
DOI
10.5694/mja11.10192
OpenAlex
W2067691359
Cited by
151
References
23
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 3
FWCI
4.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • The Medical Journal of Australia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • NOVA (University of Newcastle Australia) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
Keywords
paternal depression, child development, child well-being, behavioral problems, social-emotional development, maternal depression, early intervention, school entry, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
MeSH terms
Child Behavior Disorders, Child Development, Developmental Disabilities, Child, Preschool, Depression, Fathers, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Prospective Studies, Psychological Tests, Surveys and Questionnaires, Logistic Models

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review