A study of 5,000 families by the Eastern Virginia Medical School has found that children have smaller vocabularies when their fathers are depressed whereas children with fathers who are not depressed do not. However, mothers who are depressed seem not to have the same effect on the children.
Children with depressed fathers used 1.5 fewer words than the average of 29 at the age of two. This could be due to depressed fathers spending less time reading (9% less) to their children, wrote the researchers in New Scientist. However, for depressed mothers, they would still spend the same amount of time reading to their children, thus there was no impact.
The researchers said that though the difference is small, there might be a significant difference when it scales up across a child’s complete vocabulary.
So, fathers who are feeling depressed or feels depression is coming along, I guess it’s time for you to seek help early as it might affect your children’s future.
