A father's mental health ca affect children, especially during the crucial transition to kindergarten. (altanaka/Shutterstock)
In a nutshell
- Fathers’ depression during the kindergarten transition was linked to higher rates of behavioral problems in their children by age 9, including more oppositional behavior, hyperactivity, and ADHD symptoms, even after accounting for maternal depression and other family factors.
- Children of depressed fathers also showed weaker social skills, such as reduced cooperation and self-control, along with higher levels of problematic behaviors as reported by their teachers.
- The study highlights a major blind spot in child mental health care. While mothers are often screened for depression, fathers are rarely evaluated, despite evidence that their mental health can significantly impact a child’s long-term development.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — When a father battles depression as his child starts kindergarten, the ripple effects can be felt for years in the classroom. New research from Rutgers University reveals that children whose dads experienced depression during this pivotal transition showed significantly more behavioral problems and weaker social skills by fourth grade, even after accounting for mom’s mental health.
While previous research has extensively documented how maternal depression affects childhood development, this study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, focuses specifically on fathers at a critical step in a child’s life: when children are entering formal schooling for the first time. This transition represents a significant milestone when children begin forming crucial behavioral patterns and social connections that can set trajectories for their academic careers.
The research team analyzed data from 1,422 children in a U.S. cohort study of mostly nonmarital births. Data collection began between 1998 and 2000, with behavioral outcomes measured in 2009 and 2010 when the children were transitioning to middle school. The analysis itself was conducted between 2023 and 2024.
Fathers’ depression was assessed when children were five years old using a validated screening tool from the World Health Organization. Four years later, when children reached age nine, their teachers completed comprehensive behavioral assessments using two standardized rating scales, one measuring problems like oppositionality and hyperactivity, and another evaluating social skills like cooperation and self-control.
After adjusting for factors including child and family characteristics as well as maternal depression, children whose fathers had depression showed 36% higher oppositional behavior scores, 37% higher hyperactivity scores, and 25% higher ADHD scores compared to children whose fathers weren’t depressed.
These children also demonstrated significant deficits in positive social skills, with scores 11% lower on average, while showing 25% higher problematic behavior scores. The associations remained consistent across various subscales measuring specific types of behaviors.
This means that children whose fathers experienced depression during the kindergarten transition period were showing measurably more behavioral challenges in the classroom four years later.
This pattern held true even after researchers controlled for maternal depression, suggesting that fathers’ mental health has an independent impact on children’s development that can’t be explained solely by the mother’s psychological state or other family factors.
The researchers note that children exhibiting these behavioral problems tend to struggle more academically, have more difficulty forming positive relationships with peers, and face higher risks of engaging in dangerous behaviors as teenagers compared to children with healthier emotional and social development.
Previous research has linked these early behavioral challenges to a cascade of negative outcomes extending well into adulthood, including mental health problems, reduced educational and occupational achievement, and even poorer physical health decades later.
These findings come from a large, population-based U.S. study that followed families over time. Most previous research on paternal depression has focused on the postnatal period, relied on parents’ own reports of children’s behaviors (which can be unreliable when the parent is depressed), or used small, specialized samples that limit generalizability.
By contrast, this study used teacher reports, a more objective measure of how children function in school settings, and specifically examined paternal depression at the kindergarten transition, a period that hasn’t received as much attention in previous research.
The researchers acknowledge that they couldn’t completely determine causality or explore the specific mechanisms through which fathers’ depression affects children’s behavior. However, depression may interfere with effective parenting practices and reduce a father’s ability to provide the emotional nurturing children need.
The research team also suggests that depression can increase tension between parents and reduce the father’s presence at home, potentially affecting children’s behavior through both environmental factors and possible genetic influences.
While screening mothers for depression has increasingly become standard practice in pediatric settings, especially during the postnatal period, fathers are rarely screened despite growing evidence of their mental health’s impact on child development.
“As parents, we can model that when we struggle, we reach out and get help,” says study author Kristine Schmitz from Rutgers University, in a statement. “That’s a lesson children will carry for a lifetime.”
Overlooking dad’s mental health creates blind spots with real consequences in the classroom. As children navigate the crucial kindergarten transition, ensuring both parents have proper mental health support isn’t just good medicine—it’s an investment in their children’s behavioral health and academic success for years to come.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers analyzed data from 1,422 children who were part of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a national birth cohort that randomly sampled births in 75 hospitals across 20 large U.S. cities between 1998-2000. By design, approximately 75% of the mothers were unmarried. Paternal depression was assessed using the WHO’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short Form (CIDI-SF) when children were 5 years old. Children’s behaviors at age 9 were evaluated by their teachers using the Conner’s Teacher Rating Scale-Revised Short form (CTRS) and the Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS). The researchers used negative binomial regression models to examine associations between paternal depression and children’s behavior scores, and logistic regression models for associations with high or low scores.
Results
After controlling for child characteristics, paternal characteristics, family factors, and maternal depression, paternal depression when children were 5 years old was associated with significantly worse teacher-reported behaviors at age 9. Specifically, paternal depression was linked to a 36% higher oppositional score, 37% higher hyperactive score, and 25% higher ADHD score. Paternal depression was also associated with an 11% lower positive social skills score and a 25% higher problematic behavior score. Similar patterns were observed for high behavioral problem scores, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.78 to 1.85, indicating children of depressed fathers were nearly twice as likely to have clinically concerning levels of these behaviors.
Limitations
The study had several limitations. First, families with fathers who had low education levels or belonged to racial-ethnic minority groups were less likely to be followed up at age 9, potentially introducing bias. Second, while the study controlled for many factors including maternal depression, causality cannot be firmly established. The researchers couldn’t determine whether raising a child with behavioral challenges might contribute to paternal depression. Additionally, the study couldn’t measure the intensity and duration of the child’s exposure to paternal depression. Finally, the findings from children aged 9 in 2007-2009 may not apply to current contexts due to social and cohort changes.
Funding and Disclosures
The research was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant numbers UL1TR003017 and K12TR004788) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its support of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey (grants 78701 and 74260). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Publication Information
The study “Paternal Depression at Kindergarten Entry and Teacher-Reported Behavior at Age 9 Years” was conducted by Kristine Schmitz, Kelly Noonan, Hope Corman, Jenny M. Nguyen, Manuel E. Jimenez, and Nancy E. Reichman. It was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in January 2025 (advance online publication).
What of ALL the children being raised in decades past, and today, whose fathers and mothers were affected by horrific war and conflict? It explains a lot in my own extended family who were affected by WWII from 1939-1945 and beyond when they lived in Eastern Europe. I believe PTSD is somehow passed down from one generation to the next, not necessarily by genetics, but by lifelong exposure to the behavioral aftereffects of horrendous trauma, deprivation and constant struggle to survive. Atrocities once seen, can never fully be forgotten or ‘unseen.’