Is depression related to the likelihood of having children in both men and women? Yes. A new study said that both are related. A recent study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology said this.
The study used Finnish register data with over 1.4 million participants. The researchers examined the relationships between diagnosed depression and fertility, the number of children, and the age at first birth for all men and women born in Finland between 1960 and 1980.
Principal investigator Kateryna Golovina from the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studiessaid, “one of the main results was that depression was associated with a lower likelihood of having children and a lower number of children among men and women. Depression was also linked to a slightly lower age at first birth.”
MEN WITH MILD DEPRESSION HAVE LOWER CHANCE
The study showed that men diagnosed with depression had 33% lower odds of having a child compared to men without depression; women diagnosed with depression had 15% lower odds of having a child than women without depression. The study also noted severity of depression was associated with a likelihood of having children: for men, even mild depression was related to a lower likelihood of having children, whereas for women the link was found only for severe depression
SOCIOECONOMIC DIFFERENCES
“Among men and women with secondary and higher education, depression was related to a lower likelihood of having children and having fewer children. As for the participants with basic education, no associations were observed for men, whereas for women depression was related to a higher likelihood of having children” says Kateryna Golovina.
