Paternal Mental Distress Linked to Poorer Offspring Development

WEDNESDAY, June 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Paternal mental distress is associated with poorer child development, according to a study published online June 16 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Genevieve Le Bas, D.Psych., from the SEED Lifespan Strategic Research Centre at Deakin University in Burwood, Australia, and colleagues conducted a meta-analytic synthesis of the literature on the association between paternal perinatal depression, anxiety, and stress and offspring development during the first 18 years of life. Of the studies identified, 48 cohorts (from 84 studies) with 674 effect sizes met criteria for quantitative synthesis.

The researchers found that there were associations for paternal perinatal mental distress with poorer global, social-emotional, cognitive, language, and physical development in offspring (r = −0.12, 0.09, −0.07, −0.15, and 0.04, respectively). There was no evidence for adaptive and motor outcomes. Generally stronger associations were seen for postnatal than antenatal mental distress, suggesting that a more direct influence on the developing child may be exerted by the father”s mental state after birth.

“A comprehensive approach involving fathers, partners, and children is likely to mitigate the compounding effects of parental mental distress and early offspring developmental delay,” the authors write.

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