Work

Suicide in Victorian fathers

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Suicide is a leading cause of death among Australian males aged 25–44 years (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2022), a time that often coincides with fatherhood. Despite this, fathers continue to be neglected in both perinatal and general mental health research and practice. Although it is well established that approximately one in 10 fathers experience depression during the postnatal period (Cameron et al., 2016; Giallo et al., 2023), far less is known about suicidal behaviours among fathers – both during the postnatal period and throughout fatherhood. Our recent meta-analysis (Fogarty et al., 2024) identified only 14 studies which reported on the prevalence of suicidal ideation in fathers of young children (birth to 4 years). Although the pooled estimate of suicidal ideation was lower than expected (4.2%), we concluded that this was an underestimation due to major methodological limitations of the identified studies including (a) the exclusion of males with prior serious mental health problems and/or suicidal ideation and (b) the lack of suicide-specific measures. In addition, we identified over 200 articles which included mental health measures with items on suicidal ideation or behaviour but failed to report on this item separately, reflecting the neglect of this field of research.

Source: Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry

DOI: 10.1177/00048674251361660