Babies With Depressed Dads Learn Less
An American study has revealed that children with depressed fathers have smaller vocabularies than those who do not.However the study of 5,000 families found language development in children with depressed mums seemed unaffected. Researchers, at The Eastern Virginia Medical School, said that by the age of two, children with depressed fathers used 1.5 fewer words than the average of 29. In New Scientist magazine, they surmised that his could be because depressed fathers spent less time reading to their children.
When the children were nine months old, 14% of the mothers and 10% of the fathers were clinically depressed. The researchers measured what proportion of 50 common words the children were using at two years of age. On average the children in the study were using 29 of the 50 words by the time they reached two. However, those children whose fathers were depressed when they were nine months old used an average of 1.5 fewer words than those whose fathers were fine.
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Paediatric psychologist James Paulson, who led the survey, said the difference might seem small, but when scaled up across a child's complete vocabulary it might make a significant difference. The researchers found that depressed mothers did not reduce the amount of time they spent reading to their nine-month-old baby, but depressed fathers read on average 9% less than those who weren't.
Dr Paulson said he hoped the study would encourage depressed fathers to seek help. He said: "Men may not be likely to seek help for themselves but when other people who depend on them become affected, that may change the landscape." Depressed people have a tendancy to withdraw and go quiet, but that women often had no choice, but to continue with child care duties regardless.
May 2008
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