The Protective Effects of Father Involvement for Infants of Teen Mothers with Depressive Symptoms
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The Protective Effects of Father Involvement for Infants of Teen Mothers with Depressive Symptoms Amy Lewin • Stephanie J. Mitchell • Damian Waters • Stacy Hodgkinson • Cathy Southammakosane • Jasmine Gilmore
Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the role of father involvement on infant distress among children born to teen mothers, particularly those who are depressed. 119 teen mothers (\20 years) and their infants (\6 months) enrolled in a quasi-experimental trial of a comprehensive pediatric primary care program. Data were drawn from mother-reported questionnaires administered at baseline, before participation in the intervention or comparison conditions. 29 % of teen mothers screened positive for depression. Mothers reported that 78 % of fathers were engaged with their children, typically seeing them a few times per month, and 71 % took financial responsibility for their children. In a multiple linear regression, father responsibility predicted lower infant distress, maternal depression predicted higher infant distress, and there was a significant interaction in which father engagement buffered the effect of maternal depression on infant distress. Fathers
A. Lewin (&) Department of Family Science, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 301-405-4008, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. J. Mitchell D. Waters S. Hodgkinson C. Southammakosane J. Gilmore Children’s National Health System, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. Waters e-mail: [email protected] S. Hodgkinson e-mail: [email protected] C. Southammakosane e-mail: [email protected] J. Gilmore e-mail: [email protected]
may be a protective resource for children born to teen mothers, even as early as the first 6 months of life, potentially mitigating the heightened risk associated with maternal depression in the postpartum period. Keywords Adolescent mothers Teen mothers Father involvement Infant Maternal depression Social emotional development
Introduction Children born to teenage mothers face heightened risks for poor educational, behavioral, and emotional outcomes [1–4] that have far-reaching implications for development [5–10]. One major contributor to these children’s developmental risk is the elevated rates of maternal depression among teen mothers [11, 12]. Some early literature indicates that fathers may be an underappreciated source of support to teen mothers and their children. This paper examines the relationship between father involvement and infant behavior for children born to teen mothers, and investigates whether fathers might protect infants from the negative effects of postpartum depression. Father Involvement and Child Outcomes Theories of father involvement, and the preponderance of the data, indicate that children with involved fathers tend to have better developmental and behavioral outcomes [13]. Recent studies have found that, among adult fathers, father involvement is associated with
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