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Preconception prediction of expectant fathers' mental health: 20-year cohort study from adolescence
Elizabeth Spry1, Rebecca Giallo2, Margarita Moreno-Betancur3
1Research Officer, Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, and PhD candidate, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong.
Abstract:
We examined prospective associations between men's common mental disorders in the decades prior to offspring conception and subsequent paternal antenatal mental health problems. Data came from a prospective intergenerational cohort study which assessed common mental disorder nine times from age 14 to 29 years, and in the third trimester of subsequent pregnancies to age 35 years (N = 295 pregnancies to 214 men). Men with histories of adolescent and young adult common mental disorders were over four times more likely to experience antenatal mental health problems. Future research identifying modifiable perinatal factors that counteract preconception risk would provide further targets for intervention.
Declaration Of Interest:
None.