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  • Cohort profile: the Men and Parenting Pathways (MAPP) Study: a longitudinal Australian cohort study of men’s mental health and well-being at the normative age for first-time fatherhood

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Mental health
Cohort profile
Cohort profile: the Men and Parenting Pathways (MAPP) Study: a longitudinal Australian cohort study of men’s mental health and well-being at the normative age for first-time fatherhood
  1. Jacqui A Macdonald1,2,3,
  2. Lauren M Francis1,
  3. Helen Skouteris4,5,
  4. George J Youssef1,2,
  5. Liam G Graeme1,
  6. Joanne Williams6,7,
  7. Richard J Fletcher8,
  8. Tess Knight9,
  9. Jeannette Milgrom10,11,
  10. Laura Di Manno1,
  11. Craig A Olsson1,2,3,
  12. Christopher J Greenwood1,2
  1. 1Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  3. 3Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  4. 4Health and Social Care Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
  5. 5Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, West Midlands, UK
  6. 6Department of Health Sciences and Biostatistics, Swinburne University of Technology—Hawthorn Campus, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
  7. 7School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University Faculty of Health, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  8. 8Family Action Centre, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
  9. 9Cairnmillar Institute, Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
  10. 10Parent-Infant Research Institute, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
  11. 11Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jacqui A Macdonald; jacqui.macdonald{at}deakin.edu.au

Abstract

Purpose The Men and Parenting Pathways (MAPP) Study is a prospective investigation of men’s mental health and well-being across the normative age for transitioning to fatherhood. This includes trajectories and outcomes for men who do and do not become fathers across five annual waves of the study.

Participants Australian resident, English-speaking men aged 28–32 years at baseline were eligible. Recruitment was over a 2-year period (2015–2017) via social and traditional media and through engagement with study partners. Eight hundred and eighteen eligible men consented to participate. Of these, 664 men completed the first online survey of whom 608 consented to ongoing participation. Of the ongoing sample, 83% have participated in at least two of the first three annual online surveys.

Findings to date Three waves of data collection are complete. The first longitudinal analysis of MAPP data, published in 2020, identified five profiles that characterise men’s patterns of depressive symptom severity and presentations of anger. Profiles indicating pronounced anger and depressive symptoms were associated with fathers’ lack of perceived social support, and problems with coparenting and bonding with infants. In a second study, MAPP data were combined with three other Australian cohorts in a meta-analysis of associations between fathers’ self-reported sleep problems up to 3 years postpartum and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. Adjusted meta-analytic associations between paternal sleep and mental health risk ranged from 0.25 to 0.37.

Future plans MAPP is an ongoing cohort study. Waves 4 and 5 data will be ready for analyses at the end of 2021. Future investigations will include crossed-lagged and trajectory analyses that assess inter-relatedness and changing social networks, mental health, work and family life. A nested study of COVID-19 pandemic-related mental health and coping will add two further waves of data collection in a subsample of MAPP participants.

  • mental health
  • perinatology
  • public health
  • depression & mood disorders
  • anxiety disorders
  • adult psychiatry

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047909

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JAM, HS, TK, CAO, JW, RJF and JM conceptualised the study design and research questions. JAM, LDM and LMF developed and managed study protocols, sampling procedures, cohort engagement and maintenance activities. CJG oversees all data science activities and is supported by JAM, GJY, LGG and LMF in data preparation and analyses. JAM, CLG and LMF prepared the protocol manuscript. All authors (JAM, LMF, CAO, HS, GJY, LGG, JW, RJF, TK, JM, LDM and CJG) provided feedback on drafts and endorsed the final manuscript.

    • Funding JAM is supported by a Deakin University, Faculty of Health, Mid-Career Fellowship. CAO is supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant (APP1175086).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.