He doesn’t carry the child, but a father’s prenatal anxiety may
have an affect on children’s later behavior. For years, research
centered around how a mother’s mental health could impact her
child’s development, including later behavioral problems, but
the latest research suggests that it’s not just mom’s mental
state that may be important. Although studies on paternal
influences are still scarce, a 2011 study, for example, found
that a child’s chance of developing behavioral or emotional
problems increases by 11% if his father has signs of depression.
But those studies involved children growing up in households
with one or more depressed parents. But the current analysis,
published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at the role of men’s
mental health during their partner’s pregnancy, and found a link
between dad’s mental health and their child’s behavioral
development. The Norwegian researchers looked at data from the
Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study that follows 31,663
children and includes self-repor