Bidirectional associations between maternal and paternal depressive symptoms across the postpartum period: Contributions of maternal prenatal depression and childhood neglect
Megan Hare, Kathryn Humphreys · 2026
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Description
Megan Hare and Kathryn Humphreys track, in a 2026 study, how new mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms feed each other across the first eighteen months after birth. Postpartum depression in fathers is understudied, and couples may pass low mood back and forth.
The study followed 119 couples with advanced panel modeling. Mothers' symptoms held steady across every check, while fathers' steadied only later. A relay emerged: mothers' one-month symptoms predicted fathers' at six months, which in turn predicted mothers' at twelve months. Mothers who recalled emotional or physical neglect in childhood entered pregnancy with heavier symptoms, and emotional neglect echoed again at one month. Screening, the authors argue, should treat the couple as one system.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Megan Hare, Kathryn Humphreys |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 64993 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |