Apr 14, 2014 10:41 AM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Young fathers may have an increased risk of depression symptoms after their baby is born, according to a recent study HealthDay reported.

Researchers found that men who become fathers in their 20s and live with their children are at risk of depressive symptoms during the first five years of the child's life, HealthDay reported. However, the findings do not mean that young fathers are destined to be clinically depressed.

"But this does show us a time period where fathers are at increased risk," lead researcher Dr. Craig Garfield, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, told HealthDay.

For the study, researchers used data from a long-running project that began following more than 20,000 U.S. teens in the 1990s. Every few years, the study participants completed a 10-question screening tool on depression symptoms. Of more than 10,600 young men involved in that study, one-third had become fathers by the time they were aged 24 to 32.   

Researchers found that among fathers living with their children, depression scores rose by an average of 68 percent over the first five years of their child's life. Researchers found that fathers who were not living with their children showed a different trend: Their depression symptoms increased after high school, and then started to decline after they became fathers.

"Many men started off with very low [scores], so even with that increase they probably wouldn't screen positive for depression," Garfield said in the study. "But some would."

Garfield said more research is needed to understand why men get depressed after their baby arrives.

Eric Lewandowski of the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City told HealthDay the association between young fatherhood and depression may result from new fathers feeling added financial strain or stress on their marriage.

"The transition can be a tough one ... especially around the age at which these men became fathers -- in their mid-20s," Lewandowski, who was not involved in the study, said.

The findings were recently published April in Pediatrics.

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