There is no denying that parenting is a stressful business.
On so many levels, really, as you most likely also have a job on top of your parenting job, and the responsibility of caring and providing for a family can no doubt add both worries and even anxiety to anyone’s mental wellbeing.
The thing is, easy as it can be to forget, it is also extremely important to take care of yourself when you are a parent. And much as it is important for mums, a study has revealed that it might be even more important to fathers of young children.
According to research from Michigan State University, scientists have determined that kids’ mental and behavioral development is strongly linked to their fathers’ moods.
In some ways, the findings from this study is good news. As more and more dads take on bigger parenting roles, it’s important for studies like this to reinforce the impact fathers have on their kids, positive and negative. Moms may still be Queen Bee in the land of parenting, but dads play a significant role too.
This is what the researchers had to say:
“The findings contribute to the small but growing collection of research affirming the effects of fathers’ characteristics and father-child relationship qualities on children’s social development, rather than just the fathers’ residence in the home or presence in the child’s life.”
The study stresses (pun intended!) that fathers have more impact on their sons’ language skills, but most significantly may be the news that dads’ depression symptoms while their children are toddlers impact their kids’ social skills more strongly than their mothers’ symptoms. Which is all the more reason for men to keep stock of their head-space, and not be ashamed of speaking to a professional about it.
