PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Do mild depressive and anxiety symptoms in fathers predict behavioral and cognitive problems in their children?

Scientists find that mildly elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms reported in fathers were not associated with greater behavioral problems and cognitive difficulties in their children

2023-11-01
(Press-News.org) While the role of mothers’ stress, anxiety and depression on children’s behavioral and cognitive development is well established, less is known about the connection between fathers’ mental health and children’s development.

Now, a team of researchers affiliated to different institutions across Quebec, Canada has examined if paternal anxious and depressive symptoms, measured during their partner’s pregnancy, and again six to eight years later, are associated with children’s cognitive function and behavior. They studied this association in a community sample, where parental levels of self-reported anxious and depressive symptoms were variable and typically less severe than among a clinically diagnosed population.

“Our findings show that fathers’ reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depression were not associated with worse behavioral and cognitive outcomes in their children, as previously found in other studies,” said the study’s first author, Dr Sherri Lee Jones, a research associate at Douglas Research Centre at McGill University. “More specifically, slightly higher levels of depressive symptoms reported by fathers when their partner was pregnant were associated with fewer behavioral difficulties in their child at about six to eight years of age.” The article was published in Frontiers in Psychology.

What about the kids?

The first assessments, made during pregnancy and in infancy, included parental mental health and psychosocial measures, such as the parents’ highest level of education, relationship satisfaction, and parenting perceptions. The second assessment was conducted at the critical age of six to eight years, when children are expected to make increased use of their behavioral and cognitive skills.

“After accounting for the contribution of mothers’ symptoms and parental education levels, we see that both parents matter in the cognitive-behavioral development of their children, however, potentially not in the same ways,” Jones pointed out.

Higher symptoms of anxiety and depression among mothers were associated with adverse childhood behavioral outcomes, both at birth and during middle-childhood. In contrast, slightly higher, but still mild, depressive symptoms among fathers during the pregnancy were associated with fewer behavioral and emotional difficulties of children aged six to eight years. This included children being able to sit still for long periods of time, infrequently losing their temper, and having a good attention span, as reported by parents in questionnaires.

These slightly higher symptoms of anxiety and depression among fathers when measured in childhood, and their associations with the child’s performance on a standardized IQ test are in contrast to the patterns found among mothers.

Understanding parental influence

“It is unclear why we do not find a similar pattern for fathers as we do for mothers; namely that the father’s reports of anxiety and depressive symptoms were not necessarily linked to poorer child outcomes,” Jones said. None of the factors the researchers examined could explain the associations between the father’s mental health symptoms and the child’s outcomes. More studies are needed to understand the respective roles and the combined contribution of parents in child development, the researchers said.

They further pointed out that their findings are based on a community sample. Parents self-reported varying levels of anxious and depressive symptoms and didn’t receive a diagnosis by a mental health professional, which might mean that the findings may not be generalizable to parents who are experiencing clinical levels of depression and anxiety.

“We believe that this study will enhance our understanding of how a child’s development might be influenced by the relative and combined mental health symptoms of both the mother and father, which exhibit a lot of individual variability,” Jones concluded.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Cancer drug could hold hope for treating inflammatory diseases including gout and heart diseases

2023-11-01
A cancer drug currently in the final stages of clinical trials could offer hope for the treatment of a wide range of inflammatory diseases, including gout, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and atrial fibrillation, say scientists at the University of Cambridge. In a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers have identified a molecule that plays a key role in triggering inflammation in response to materials in the body seen as potentially harmful. We are born with a defence system known as innate immunity, which acts as the first line of defence against harmful materials in the body. Some of these materials will come from outside, such as bacterial or viral ...

New cancer drug shows promise targeting genetic weakness in tumors, comments Virginia Tech expert

New cancer drug shows promise targeting genetic weakness in tumors, comments Virginia Tech expert
2023-11-01
Imagine the body’s cells are well-behaved students in the classroom. The “teachers” are tumor suppressor genes, and they make sure cells follow the rules. But when tumor suppressor genes are away, cells may go astray. With cells, this is a serious matter. Unregulated behavior can lead to uncontrolled growth and, ultimately, the development of cancer. In an invited review article Wednesday (Nov. 1, 2023) in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Kathleen Mulvaney, assistant professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, talks about the ...

Marine oxygen landscape shaped by plate movement and biological innovation

Marine oxygen landscape shaped by plate movement and biological innovation
2023-11-01
The oxygen content of seawater has a profound impact on the cycling of bioessential elements and the habitability of Earth. But how and why the marine oxygen landscape (i.e., the spatial pattern of oxygen levels) evolved since the start of the Phanerozoic 538 million years ago is not well established. To tackle this problem, researchers led by Prof. WANG Xiangli from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) and Prof. LI Chao from the Chengdu University of Technology, along with collaborators from the University of Cincinnati and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, have reconstructed a nearly continuous record of ...

Having a bad boss makes you a worse employee

2023-11-01
uIf your boss stomps and yells, criticizes you, and then proceeds to take the credit for your work – even it is an isolated incident – it can take a profound toll on employee well-being and performance. But despite the many years of research, the precise mechanisms through which bad leadership impacts employees’ performance remain a subject of interest. In a new study, first published online Oct. 30 in Group & Organization Management, an international group of researchers, led by Stevens Institute of Technology and University of Illinois Chicago, offer a novel explanation of the cognitive factors through which abusive ...

Non-invasive technology maps brain activity to investigate behavior changes in neurological disease

2023-11-01
A research team led by Cleveland Clinic and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) has developed a new method for mapping how the parts of the brain "speak" to each other, critical to understanding behavior changes in patients with neurological disease. Diseases like Alzheimer's disease change how patients communicate and act, affecting their relationships and well-being. Cleveland Clinic's Hod Dana, PhD, is collaborating with Jacob Raber, PhD, an OHSU behavioral neuroscientist, on ...

NIH funding helps Ghose Lab invest in innovative imaging equipment

NIH funding helps Ghose Lab invest in innovative imaging equipment
2023-11-01
UTA will soon add a new piece of cutting-edge equipment to its already impressive and growing research armamentarium—a type of super-resolution microscope (SRM) that allows biologists to see structures within a cell in even finer detail. The SRM will come to UTA because of additional grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the lab of Piya Ghose, an assistant professor of biology at UTA. This nearly $250,000 award supplements Ghose’s existing NIH/National Institute of General Medical ...

Domestic violence involving firearms increased during COVID-19 pandemic

Domestic violence involving firearms increased during COVID-19 pandemic
2023-11-01
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Domestic violence went down or stayed the same during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in five major U.S. cities. However, domestic violence involving firearms increased in three of those cities, according to a new UC Davis study published in the Journal of Family Violence. “The increase in firearm domestic violence is concerning, as abuser firearm access is a risk factor for lethality,” said Elizabeth Tomsich, a research data analyst at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Center and ...

Microbiology: River plastics may harbour potential pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes

2023-11-01
Microbial communities growing on plastic debris in rivers may have the capacity to harbour potentially pathogenic microbes and act as reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes, according to a study published in Microbiome. The findings also highlight differences in the potential pathogens and antimicrobial resistance genes that new and degraded  plastics may have the capacity to harbour. Vinko Zadjelovic, Elizabeth Wellington, Joseph Christie-Oleza and colleagues characterised the microbial communities found on the surface ...

High metabolism is an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease

High metabolism is an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease
2023-11-01
An early phase in the process of developing Alzheimer’s disease is a metabolic increase in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in Molecular Psychiatry. The discovery opens up for new potential methods of early intervention.  Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and strikes about 20,000 people in Sweden every year. Researchers now show that a metabolic increase in the mitochondria, the cellular power ...

Trust is the most important factor for British South Asians when taking part in genetic research to tailor medications

2023-11-01
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have gathered detailed insights from the British South Asian community that could lead to more successful implementation of genetic testing to help tailor the use of routine medications. Their findings are published today (1 November 2023) in The Pharmacogenomics Journal and indicate key issues that could affect the take up of this new type of genetic testing amongst patients. Despite comprising 10% of the British population, individuals of South Asian heritage have historically been under-represented in ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Scientists trace origins of now extinct plant population from volcanically active Nishinoshima

AI algorithm based on routine mammogram + age can predict women’s major cardiovascular disease risk

New hurdle seen to prostate screening: primary-care docs

MSU researchers explore how virtual sports aid mental health

Working together, cells extend their senses

Cheese fungi help unlock secrets of evolution

Researchers find brain region that fuels compulsive drinking

Mental health effects of exposure to firearm violence persist long after direct exposure

Research identifies immune response that controls Oropouche infection and prevents neurological damage

University of Cincinnati, Kent State University awarded $3M by NSF to share research resources

Ancient DNA reveals deeply complex Mastodon family and repeated migrations driven by climate change

Measuring the quantum W state

Researchers find a way to use antibodies to direct T cells to kill Cytomegalovirus-infected cells

Engineers create mini microscope for real-time brain imaging

Funding for training and research in biological complexity

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: September 12, 2025

ISSCR statement on the scientific and therapeutic value of human fetal tissue research

Novel PET tracer detects synaptic changes in spinal cord and brain after spinal cord injury

Wiley advances Knowitall Solutions with new trendfinder application for user-friendly chemometric analysis and additional enhancements to analytical workflows

Benchmark study tracks trends in dog behavior

OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Google vary widely in identifying hate speech

Research spotlight: Study identifies a surprising new treatment target for chronic limb threatening ischemia

Childhood loneliness and cognitive decline and dementia risk in middle-aged and older adults

Parental diseases of despair and suicidal events in their children

Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults

Acupuncture treatment improves disabling effects of chronic low back pain in older adults

How interstellar objects similar to 3I/ATLAS could jump-start planet formation around infant stars

Rented e-bicycles more dangerous than e-scooters in cities

Ditches as waterways: Managing ‘ditch-scapes’ to strengthen communities and the environment

In-situ molecular passivation enables pure-blue perovskite LEDs via vacuum thermal evaporation

[Press-News.org] Do mild depressive and anxiety symptoms in fathers predict behavioral and cognitive problems in their children?
Scientists find that mildly elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms reported in fathers were not associated with greater behavioral problems and cognitive difficulties in their children