Longitudinal associations between paternal mental health and child behavior and cognition in middle childhood.

Introduction: Paternal mental health has been associated with adverse consequences on offspring psychosocial development, and family environmental factors may partly explain those associations. To clarify this, we need comprehensive prospective studies, particularly in middle-childhood when the child enters school and is expected to make use of behavioral and cognitive skills as part of their interactions and learning.
Method: Using data from a sub-sample of the prospective 3D birth cohort study comprised of mother-father-child triads, and a follow-up of the parents and the children at 6-8 years of age ( n = 61; 36 boys, 25 girls), we examined whether paternal anxious and depressive symptoms measured during the pregnancy period (i.e., prenatally) or concurrently when the child was assessed at 6-8 years old were associated with children's cognition/behavior.
Results: In contrast to our hypotheses, we found that greater prenatal paternal depressive symptoms predicted fewer child behavioral difficulties; and that greater concurrent childhood paternal depression or anxiety symptoms were associated with higher child full-scale IQ, controlling for the equivalent maternal mental health assessment and parental education. Father parenting perception did not mediate these associations, nor were they moderated by maternal mental health at the concurrent assessment, or paternal ratings of marital relationship quality.
Discussion: These findings suggest that higher symptoms of paternal mental health symptoms are associated with fewer child behavioral difficulties and higher cognitive performance in middle childhood. Potential clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that this work was funded by Merck, Sharp & Dohme corp. (T-VN), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (T-VN, MY5-155371), Montreal General Hospital Foundation, McGill University Health Center Foundation (T-VN), and Fonds de Recherche Québec Santé (T-VN, 36776). The 3D and 3D-Transition Studies were both supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CRI 88413 and PJT-148551, respectively). The authors also declare that they received salary support through the Graduate Excellence Fellowship in Mental Health Research, awarded by the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University (CC), and a Ferring Postdoctoral Fellowship in Reproductive Health awarded by McGill Faculty of Medicine (SLJ). JRS was supported by the Fonds Monique Gaumond pour la Recherche en Maladies Affectives. The funders were not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2023 Jones, Caccese, Davis, Lew, Elgbeili, Herba, Barnwell, Robert, Gavanski, Horsley, Fraser, Da Costa, Séguin, Nguyen and Montreuil.)