THE INFLUENCE OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS ON FATHERS’ BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES

The present study examines the impact of young, poor, unwed fathers on their family by investigating the influence of depressive symptom frequency on fathers’ relationship with their children and partners. Couples from seven American cities with populations over 200,000 were recruited and interviewed about such areas of life as romantic and parental relationships, health, and employment at the hospital within 24 hours after the birth of their child. An Item Response Theory (IRT) within-group analysis of the 1,759 African-, Caucasian-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and Native American fathers in the study yielded a 3-class clustering of depressive symptoms. Class 1 fathers had the lowest frequency of depressive symptom expression; class 2 fathers had a low frequency; and class 3 fathers had low to medium rates of depressive symptoms. Multivariate statistics revealed that depressive class membership predicted domestic violence toward fathers’ partners but not affection toward their children. The importance of the parental behavior of teaching children about life, however, varied by class, with class 2 fathers most highly endorsing this behavior. Implications of young, unwed, poor fathers' behaviors and attitudes toward their children and romantic partners will be discussed in terms of men's contributions to family life.