Preconception prediction of expectant fathers' mental health: 20-year cohort study from adolescence
Elizabeth Spry,
Rebecca Giallo,
Margarita Moreno-Betancur,
Jacqui Macdonald,
Denise Becker,
Rohan Borschmann,
Stephanie Brown,
George C. Patton,
Craig A. Olsson
Affiliations
Elizabeth Spry
Research 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
Rebecca Giallo
Senior Research Fellow, Healthy Mothers Healthy Families group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne
Margarita Moreno-Betancur
Postdoctoral research fellow, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, and Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne
Jacqui Macdonald
Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Denise Becker
Biostatistician, Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne
Rohan Borschmann
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, and Honorary Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne and Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London
Stephanie Brown
Senior Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Healthy Mothers Healthy Families group, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, and Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
George C. Patton
Professorial Fellow in Adolescent Health Research, University of Melbourne, and Senior Principal Research Fellow, National Health and Medical Research Council
Craig A. Olsson
Professor and Head of the Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, and Honorary Principal Research Fellow, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Australia
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.
