Parenting Research Centre, Level 5, 232 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, VIC, 3002, Australia.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2012 Dec;47(12):1907-16. doi: 10.1007/s00127-012-0510-0. Epub 2012 Apr 11.
The primary objective of this study was to report on the occurrence of mental health difficulties for a large national sample of Australian fathers of children aged 0-5 years (n = 3,471). Secondary objectives were to compare fathers' mental health against normative data for the general male adult population, and to examine the course of mental health problems for fathers across the early childhood period.
Secondary analysis of data from the infant cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children at three waves when children were 0-12 months, 2-3 and 4-5 years. Comparative data on the prevalence of psychological distress in the Australian adult male population sourced from the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing.
Approximately nine per cent of fathers reported symptomatic or clinical psychological distress at each wave, as measured by the Kessler-6. Approximately 30 % reporting distress at wave 1 continued to report distress at a similar or worse level across waves 2 and 3. Fathers not living with their children also had high rates of distress (14 % at wave 1 and 10 % at wave 2). Finally, fathers in the present study had 1.38 increased odds (95 % CI 1.12-1.69) for psychological distress compared with the Australian adult male population.
Fathers are at risk of experiencing postnatal mental health difficulties, which may persist across the early childhood period for some fathers. The results suggest routine assessment of fathers' wellbeing should be undertaken in the postnatal period with mental health interventions and support provided across the early childhood period.
本研究的主要目的是报告澳大利亚 0-5 岁儿童的大量父亲（n=3471）出现心理健康问题的情况。次要目的是将父亲的心理健康状况与一般成年男性的常模数据进行比较，并研究父亲在整个幼儿期心理健康问题的发展过程。
对婴儿队列的三次随访数据进行二次分析，随访时间分别为儿童 0-12 个月、2-3 岁和 4-5 岁时。关于澳大利亚成年男性人口中心理困扰患病率的比较数据来自国家心理健康和幸福感调查。
约 9%的父亲在每个波次（Kessler-6 量表测量）报告有症状或临床心理困扰。在波 1 报告有困扰的父亲中，约 30%在波 2 和波 3 时继续报告相似或更严重程度的困扰。不与孩子同住的父亲也有较高的困扰率（波 1 为 14%，波 2 为 10%）。最后，与澳大利亚成年男性人口相比，本研究中的父亲出现心理困扰的可能性高 1.38 倍（95%CI 1.12-1.69）。
父亲有出现产后心理健康问题的风险，一些父亲的问题可能会在幼儿期持续存在。结果表明，应在产后期间常规评估父亲的健康状况，并在整个幼儿期提供心理健康干预和支持。
