Depression is not a “genetic” “disease”. You don’t genetically inherit being sad. However, you can spread your poor vibes to others.

In a joint study conducted by Penn State and Michigan State, published in Development and Psychopathology, adolescent depression is linked to paternal depression without any genetic relatedness.

For their study, researchers evaluated 720 families in the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development (NEAD) study, with over half of the families containing a child-rearing stepparent. Fathers, mothers, and children answered questions regarding depression, behaviors, and child-parent conflicts. Using series of models, researchers explored association between paternal depression and child’s behavioral issues. They found that adolescent depression and behavioral problems was related to paternal depression regardless of genetic relatedness between father and adolescent.

“The results pointed squarely to the environmental transmission of depression and behaviors between fathers and children,” said co-author, Alexandra Burt. “Additionally, we continued to see these associations in a subset of ‘blended’ families in which the father was biologically related to one participating child but not to the other, which was an important confirmation of our results. We also found that much of this effect appeared to be a function of parent-child conflict. These kinds of findings add to the evidence that parent-child conflict plays a role as an environmental predictor of adolescent behaviors.”

So Dads, stop being so sad, you’re making your children sad and depressed too. The importance of a strong, involved and positive father figure to children cannot be over emphasized. Be one of those fathers and not a deadbeat one.

SA Burt et al. Illuminating the origins of the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology with a novel genetically informed design. Development and Psychopathology. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579422000451