Being a father is not an easy task and can sometimes affect the mental state of the parents and therefore other areas, just as problems in other facets of life can affect the relationship between parents and children.
This is what has been evidenced in a recent study, observing that Depressed parents are more likely to hit their children or be more careless with them than those who are mentally healthy, even when children are small and crawl.
The study, baptized as Fragile Families and Child Welfare, has evaluated more than 5,000 children born in the US between 1998 and 2000, with questionnaires made to parents when their children were one year old. The data obtained speak clearly: 41% of depressed parents reported that they had hit their child in the last month, compared to 13% of non-depressed parents.
In addition, parents affected by depression were less than half as likely to read stories to their children three or more times a week compared to healthy parents.
Dr. R. Neal Davis, one of those responsible for the study said:
Depressive symptoms in parents could negatively affect the way they interact with their children ... a one-year-old child is not in a developmental phase suitable for connecting the dots, so he cannot relate a scourge to any behavior he has had .
That is, if the scourge aims to educate, nothing will be achieved, because one-year-old children do not create the association between a behavior performed and the consequent scourge.
I personally do not believe that the intention of the parents, in these circumstances, is precisely those. If we take into account that parents are depressed and probably with a low "endurance" level, it is logical to think that the tendency to hit them is not the result of previous intellectual work with the aim of teaching something, but rather of a need to unload the anger and frustration on the part of the parents, who are not usually in a position to support their children's behaviors, behaviors that do not have to be inappropriate (except if they are one year old), but simply are not accepted by their parents because they see them as annoying (a one-year-old child claims his parents a lot and needs a lot of attention and contact).
In this situation, the best thing is that parents who are in this situation seek help urgently, since your child's health depends on your child's health and the link (or lack thereof) that can be created between them.
