"Depression and Parenting Among Fathers: The Mediating Role of Relationship Quality"

Purpose: Depression is a common psychological condition, yet its effects on the family are debated. Studies on its epidemiology suggest that 6% to 8% of adults in the United States population will experience a depressive episode associated with a depressive disorder during their lifetime. While there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that father’s depression influences his involvement with children, there is comparatively little research rigorously describing the mechanisms depression operates through, especially against the comparatively larger body of research on mothers’ depression and its effect on parental involvement. We examine the relationship between father involvement, marital relationship quality and depression in hopes of documenting a possible pathway of fathers’ depression on negative parental involvement.

Method: We used the Flourishing Families Project dataset, surveying families from a large Northwestern US city. Participant families were contacted randomly from selected census tracts to appropriately represent socioeconomic and racial stratification in the city. Eligibility requirements included families having children from ages 10-14, and 423 of the 692 contacted families consented to participate. Our dependent variable, a construct of fathers’ self-reported depression, was assessed with 11 variables (α= .78). Our second dependent variable was our construct of relationship quality, made with five items assessing both fathers’ and mothers’ combined perception (α= .98). Our independent variables consisted of two constructs, each with father and child report. Paternal Involvement was made up of 8 variables for both father and child (α= .72, α= .78) Our second construct was Parenting Styles, again for both father and child, each made up of 32 items (α= .83, α= .88). We performed a robust maximum likelihood estimation imputing for missing values using Stata 13’s version of a bifactor SEM model. In the first phase, we ran confirmatory factor analyses for the constructs of father report of depression; and father, mother, and child report of involvement (separated by us theoretically along the lines of warmth and engagement). We also included combined measures of warmth, engagement, and of shared perception of father involvement. In the second phase, we integrated the factor scores and fitted for the best model pathway.

Results: Our SEM model demonstrated that the effects of depression on individual and shared perceptions of father involvement were mediated by relationship quality (none of depression’s effects on involvement directly were significant). Depression’s total effect on shared perceptions of father involvement was significant at β= -.141** at time 2 and -.201** at time 5. Stability and satisfaction were strong and significant predictors of the more general shared construct we called involvement (β= .62*** and .69*** at time 5, respectively).

Implications: Our paper shows some support for the need to emphasize the importance of treating men with mental health concerns, as a way of improving their relationship with women and children, and of improving the quality of life of families generally. Our results suggest that the impact of fathers’ depression negatively affects their parental involvement through their marital relationship quality.