Exploring the Impact of Father Presence on Adolescent Depression

A three-wave longitudinal study found that higher perceived father presence predicted lower adolescent depressive symptoms.

The cohort included 1,074 Chinese adolescents followed across three assessment waves, with perceived father presence and depressive symptoms measured at each time point. Path models examined change in depressive symptoms over time as the primary endpoint and showed that greater perceived father presence was associated with reductions in symptom trajectories; the association remained robust in adjusted longitudinal models.

Mediation analyses using longitudinal path modeling showed that emotion beliefs and cognitive reappraisal mediated the relationship between father presence and depressive symptoms. The investigators used sequential pathway models within a structural framework to estimate indirect effects across waves and assess temporal ordering.

Sequential effects followed a clear chain: father presence predicted fewer maladaptive emotion beliefs, fewer maladaptive beliefs predicted greater use of cognitive reappraisal, and greater reappraisal predicted reduced depressive symptoms. Fewer maladaptive emotion beliefs likely lower negative appraisals of emotional experience, enabling adolescents to interpret feelings as manageable rather than threatening. Greater use of cognitive reappraisal supplies an adaptive regulation strategy that reduces sustained negative affect and depressive cognition.