Table 3.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on father–child bonding and fathers’ mental health
| Father–child bonding | Father depression | Father somatization | Father anxiety | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimate (SE) | CI [2.5%, 97.5%] | P-value | Estimate (SE) | CI [2.5%, 97.5%] | P-value | Estimate (SE) | CI [2.5%, 97.5%] | P-value | Estimate (SE) | CI [2.5%, 97.5%] | P-value | |
| Fixed effects | ||||||||||||
| Intercept | 40.85 (15.45) | 10.20, 73.43 | 0.010 | 16.21 (5.53) | 4.89, 25.66 | 0.004 | 19.61 (5.92) | 7.70, 31.10 | 0.001 | 17.22 (6.06) | 4.91, 30.96 | 0.006 |
| Father groupa | 3.04 (1.47) | 0.02, 5.84 | 0.044 | –1.47 (0.49) | –2.57, –0.50 | 0.005 | –2.48 (0.52) | –3.53, –1.55 | <0.001 | –1.96 (0.55) | –3.06, –0.89 | <0.001 |
| Social support | 0.15 (0.20) | –0.27, 0.56 | 0.458 | –0.15 (0.07) | –0.27, <0.01 | 0.046 | –0.17 (0.08) | –0.32, –0.02 | 0.029 | –0.15 (0.08) | –0.31, 0.01 | 0.068 |
| Stressful events | 0.16 (0.36) | –0.63, 0.87 | 0.662 | –0.12 (0.13) | –0.39, 0.18 | 0.358 | –0.25 (0.14) | –0.54, 0.02 | 0.080 | –0.10 (0.14) | –0.38, 0.19 | 0.485 |
| Random effects | SD | Variance | P-value | SD | Variance | P-value | SD | Variance | P-value | SD | Variance | P-value |
| Intercept | 7.13 | 50.90 | 0.001 | 2.16 | 4.68 | 0.016 | 2.28 | 5.22 | 0.016 | 2.56 | 6.56 | 0.004 |
| Residual | 7.15 | 51.06 | 2.74 | 7.50 | 2.94 | 8.65 | 2.90 | 8.44 | ||||
| R2 conditional | 0.54 | 0.50 | 0.58 | 0.57 | ||||||||
a
Father group was coded as –1 = gay fathers during the COVID-19 pandemic; 1 = gay fathers prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater scores on the variables indicated greater father–child bonding, depression, somatization, anxiety and social support, and more stressful events.