A father's good mental health can greatly reduce the negative impact of a mother's poor mental health on children's behaviour and well-being.

That's what Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center researchers report in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

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Parents' depression rubs off on kids
"If a mother and father are depressed, the odds that a child will have behavioural or emotional problems go up eightfold," study author Dr Robert Kahn, a physician/researcher in the division of general and community paediatrics, said in a prepared statement.

"The risk is less elevated if only the mother reported poorer mental health and not elevated at all if only the father reported poorer mental health," Kahn said.

The study also found that when both a mother and father have mental health problems, the influence on behavioural problems in their children is especially strong in boys.

How the study was conducted
Khan and his colleagues examined data from a survey of families of 822 children, aged three to 12.

"Many studies have shown that poor maternal mental health has negative impacts on their children's behaviour and emotional health," study co-author Dr Robert Whitaker said in a prepared statement.

"Rarely have studies used information about the mental health of both parents to assess outcomes in their children. This study suggests that what happens to children's well-being when their mothers suffer mental health problems depends on whether the father is healthy," Whitaker said. – (HealthDayNews)

Read more:
Child Zone
All you need to know about parenting

 

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