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Antecedents of Fathers’ Stress in Fatherhood

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Handbook of Fathers and Child Development

Abstract

This chapter concerns prospective fathers’ social background, relational experiences, mental health during pregnancy, and caregiving in the infant’s first year of living. New fathers’ experience of the antenatal period is more stressful than in the postnatal period, and untreated paternal depression and anxiety can have serious consequences for the whole family. Research has shown that salient predictors of parental stress include negative life events; mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression; marital discord; parental developmental history; and partner attachment style. Further, it has been found that stress influences parenting behavior and may be a determinant of dysfunctional parenting. Norwegian fathers participate more actively in caregiving for their infants than former generations of fathers have done previously, which underscores the importance of family interventions that ought to be assessed already in pregnancy in order to prevent parenting nonoptimal mental health and stress in child infancy, especially since predictors can be obtained already during pregnancy working in symphony with spousal disharmony.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Mental Health, Grorud DPS, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway

    Thomas Skjøthaug

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Hiram E. Fitzgerald

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany

    Kai von Klitzing

  3. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Natasha J. Cabrera

  4. Graduate Program in Educational Psychology, Centro Universitário FIEO, Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil

    Júlia Scarano de Mendonça

  5. Division of Mental Health, Akershus University Hospital HF, Lørenskog, Norway

    Thomas Skjøthaug

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Skjøthaug, T. (2020). Antecedents of Fathers’ Stress in Fatherhood. In: Fitzgerald, H.E., von Klitzing, K., Cabrera, N.J., Scarano de Mendonça, J., Skjøthaug, T. (eds) Handbook of Fathers and Child Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51027-5_14

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