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Irish Wedding News

16/11/2017

Depression In Parents Can Affect Children

A new study has suggested that depression in mothers and fathers can have an impact on their children. The findings come despite mothers often being the focus when it comes to treating depression in adolescents.

The study, from a team at University College London (UCL) looked at 14,000 families in the UK and Ireland.

Based on two large samples of the general population (6,000 families from Ireland and almost 8,000 from the UK), parents and children, at the ages of seven, nine and 13-14, filled in questionnaires about their feelings.

The children were asked about their emotional symptoms, with parents also answering questions on their feelings. Their answers were measured against a depression scale and the results found that there is a link between depressive symptoms in fathers and similar symptoms in their adolescent children that was similar in size to the effect of a mother's depression.

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The team behind the research said that many mental health problems, including depression, start around the age of 13, and although depression in mothers was already known to increase the risk of the condition, the influence of fathers' wellbeing was a new finding.

They added that both parents had a role to play in preventing teenage depression and encouraged more fathers to seek help for depressive symptoms by speaking to their doctor.

Dr Gemma Lewis from UCL, who led the study, said because mothers tended to spend more time with their children, there was often a tradition of "mother-blaming" when treating mental health issues in offspring. However, she said the research demonstrated that "we should be bringing fathers into the picture more".

"Children see the way their parents behave and act and this could bring on negative ways of thinking, which could then lead to depression," she added. "If you're a father who hasn't sought treatment for your depression, it could have an impact on your child. We hope that our findings could encourage men who experience depression to speak to their doctor about it."

(JP/LM)

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"A new study has suggested that depression in mothers and fathers can have an impact on their children."