Depressed mothers, antisocial fathers affect kids

Many children of depressed mothers also have antisocial fathers, new study findings show, and both parents' problems are associated with an increased risk of depression and conduct disorder among the children.

"These findings imply that children of depressed mothers frequently experience an additional risk that we were unaware of before: that of having a father who engages in antisocial behavior," study author Dr. Naomi R. Marmorstein of Rutgers University in New Jersey told AMN Health.

"Thus," she added, "the children's difficulties may be compounded by the norm-violating behavior of their fathers."

Previous studies have found that children of depressed mothers may experience a host of problems including mental and motor impairment in infancy and psychopathology in adolescence, as well as an increased risk for major ddepressionand conduct disorder.

Few researchers, however, have investigated the paternal contribution to the risk of depression and conduct disorder for these children.

To investigate, Marmorstein and her colleagues looked at hundreds of 17-year-old twins along with their mothers and fathers.

They found that twins with a depressed mother had a more than two-fold increased risk of experiencing major depression and a nearly two-fold risk of having a conduct disorder. The risks were similarly increased for those with an antisocial father in comparison to those whose fathers had no history of antisocial behavior.

In general, women with major depression seemed to be more likely than their non-depressed peers to have children with a man whose psychiatric history included antisocial behavior, the researchers report in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Nearly 50 percent of the men who had children with depressed mothers had a history of antisocial behavior. The same was true for only 37 percent of the men who had children with non-depressed mothers.

"This study shows that adults with psychological problems are often in relationships with partners who are also psychologically troubled but who have problems of a different type," Marmorstein said.

The study did not examine why the depressed women partnered with antisocial men or why antisocial men partnered with depressed women, but Marmorstein speculated that "antisocial men may seek out women who are depressed and perhaps meek and lacking in self-confidence so that they can dominate and control them."

Alternatively, "women who are depressed could be attracted by the confidence and strength of many antisocial men," she said. "It is also certainly possible that the mothers' could be related to distress over their partners' antisocial behavior."