Adjudicating Between Three Models of Parental Depression’s Effect on Child Wellbeing

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Abstract

Parental depression can significantly affect children. Prior research has focused mostly on the impact of mothers on young children, ignoring fathers and a broad range of children’s ages. Theories addressing paternal depression have considered three possible ways it affects children: the spillover effect, where maternal depression is buffered by fathers; the interactive effect, where maternal and paternal depression work together to negatively impact children; and the independence hypothesis, where maternal and paternal depression have unique, independent effects on children. We use three pooled longitudinal panels of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to test these models on three measures of child (age 5-17) behavior problems. The results show support for an interactive model of parental depression, but also indicate that mothers and fathers both impact their children’s health and wellbeing. Our results highlight the importance of fathers and the need for additional work on the unique influence of fathers on child health and wellbeing.

Authors

• Kevin Shafer, Brigham Young University

• Alex Wambach, Brigham Young University