One in seven Quebec fathers feels a high level of psychological distress: survey

A new Regroupement pour la valorisation de la paternité survey found one out of seven Quebec fathers with children aged 0 to 18 feels a high level of psychological distress, but even those who would need it most often still refuse to seek professional help.

"In the entire population of Quebec fathers, that's about 130,000 fathers," said pyschology professor Carl Lacharité at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), who helped develop the survey. "That's a lot of people at Mass, as they say."

Released on Monday as part of the 10th Quebec Fatherhood Week and a few days before Father's Day, the SOM survey shows that the situation is even worse among fathers who earn less than $35,000 a year or who are unemployed, since nearly a third of them say they experience high psychological distress.

One-quarter of fathers who have experienced a separation in the past five years are in the same situation.

Twenty-nine percent of fathers with high psychological distress admitted to suicidal ideation in the past year, a figure four times higher than the average of 7 per cent.

English-speaking fathers are also somewhat overrepresented in terms of high psychological distress.

Participants were asked if they had felt "angry," "so tired that everything was an effort," "hopeless," "agitated or unable to sit still," "so depressed that nothing could make them smile" or "good for nothing" in the past month.

The percentage of dads who responded "All/most of the time/sometimes" ranged from 25 per cent for "good for nothing" to 54 per cent for "nerves."

Despite this, 83 per cent of survey participants indicated that they had not consulted a psychosocial resource or worker in the past year.

It is noted, however, that one-third of fathers with high psychological distress sought professional help, which also means that two-thirds did not.

These results, Lacharité said, are a "call for empathy for what fathers may be experiencing."

"In a survey like this, they tell us how they feel, what they experience," he explained. "They don't necessarily tell us what they're expressing to the people around them, so you end up with the stereotype (of the invulnerable father), and then on the other side, there are fathers who break down, who commit irreparable acts. But in between, there's a lot of stuff, and this survey shows us some of that."

FEELING LONELY

Many fathers reported feeling lonely in their parenting.

For example, more than half of the dads surveyed confided that they cannot count on or can rarely count on help from their parents in performing their family responsibilities.

The use of help from other family members or friends is even less common (69 per cent and 76 per cent respectively have little or no access to it).

"This further increases the difficulties they will experience," said Lacharité. "So the fact of creating links, of saying 'come on, don't isolate yourself, we're going to discuss it, we're going to talk about it, we're going to look at things together, the decisions you have to make, you're not alone, we're going to talk about it together.'"

Finally, the proportion of fathers who say they are dissatisfied with their relationship with their co-parent hovers around 15 per cent, but it jumps to 35 per cent among single-parent fathers, especially those who have experienced a separation in the last five years.

The quality of the relationship with the co-parent was assessed on the basis of criteria such as "the sharing of caregiving and parenting tasks," "the quality of communication (between co-parents)," and "feeling valued in your role as a father by your co-parent."

OTHER DATA

Nearly 60 per cent of fathers who participated in this survey reported experiencing some form of abuse (physical, emotional or sexual) during their childhood.

On a more positive note, the vast majority of dads feel they have all the skills they need to be a good father. However, more than a quarter of them admit that they struggle to deal with the difficulties that can arise on a daily basis.

"While many researchers have looked at the psychological distress associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, most of their work has focused on the distress of mothers or children," said Lacharité. "We have a lot of research data that shows that it has had an impact on the lives of families, but there was little discussion of what happens with fathers. Yet, in families, fathers are a character that is just as important as the character of mothers."

Despite this, about 60 per cent of fathers who responded to the survey said they felt that society values the role of mothers more than their own.

The 10th edition of Quebec Fatherhood Week is presented from June 13 to 19, 2022, under the theme "Dad, do you need help? Because all parents can use support."

The results of the survey were obtained through an online survey conducted by SOM from March 1 to 11, 2022 among a representative sample of 2,119 Quebec fathers with at least one child under the age of 18 who personally identify with this parental role.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 13, 2022.