The main objective of this study was to obtain specific data to the experience of fathers during the postnatal period but also to investigate the presence of emotional disorders in the postnatal period, two to six months after the birth of the child. The initial hypothesis that I formulated on the basis of my research presupposed that the feeling of parental efficiency, conjugal adjustment and perceived critical events would participate as the variation of emotional disorders such as depression, anxiety and stress in the « First-time father » and « Multiple-time father » in our sample of fathers.
This study was conducted in a sample of 33 fathers, 19 of whom were « First-time father » (fathers who have only one child) and 14 « multiple-time father » (fathers who have more than one child) of child from two to six months. Data from this study were collected through self-administered questionnaires. Fathers had to fill, in our presence, a notebook of questionnaires. They assessed the personnal characteristics of fathers (socio-démographic questionnaire), depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21 scale), the sentiment of parental effectiveness (DAS-16 scale, with subscales « degree of agreement » and « quality of interactions » »), events of life and their impact (ingrated in the questionnaire socio-demographic).
First, I made an hypothesis about the parity of our two groups of participants that « First-time father » would have a lower sentiment of parental effectiveness, as well as a more negative conjugal adjustment and a smaller number of critical events in comparison with the group of « Multiple-time father ». However, the results showed no significant differences between the two groups. This means that parental efficiency, marital adjustment and critical events do not depend on the parity of our sample of fathers.
I have also formulated an hypothesis about parental efficiency, marital adjustment, critical events and paternal emotional disturbances. They supposed that the presence of negative parental efficacy, unsatisfactory conjugal adjustment and many critical events in life would involve more anxiety, stress and depression for fathers in our sample.The results of the correlational analyzes prove to be significant for these hypothesis and show that the more negative feeling of parental effectiveness is important for father, more they declare depressive symptoms. Moreover, more satisfactory degree of conjugal agreement is important, less the father develop depression. Finally, more the number of critical events is perceived by fathers, more they are to be stressed in the postnatal period.
In a second time, I wanted to study the link between marital adjustment and sentiment of parental efficiency. The hypothesis is that the presence of a negative conjugal adjustment in our sample of fathers is related to the presence of a negative feeling of parenting. Indeed, the significant results show that more the satisfactory degree of marital agreement is good, less they declare a negative feeling of parental effectiveness.
Finally, I tested the model that negative parental efficiency, inadequate degree of adjustment in the couple and many critical events contribute to the development of emotional disorders in postnatal period for fathers. The results show that these three factors account for 40% of the variation in anxiety, stress and depression in our sample. Moreover, the factor « critical events » seems to be the most relevant within this model since it explains hismself 17% of the variation of the emotional disturbances in the fathers interviewed, two to six months after the birth of child.
This study showed that the degree of conjugal agreement, parental efficiency and critical events contribute to the variation in depression, anxiety and stress in our sample of fathers. However, it is important to continue studying paternal emotional disorders in the postnatal period in order to better detext and accompany them, especially given the impact that these disorders have on the family unit. Finally, father’s studies that adopt a systemic perspective are able to account for paternal environments that may negatively or positively impact their perinatal difficulties.
