Federal regulators are recommending more screening for depression in pregnant women, mothers and teens, but one researcher says a crucial group - fathers - are being left out. Erin Billups filed the following report.

Six percent of new fathers have symptoms of depression which pediatrician and NYU Global Health Professor Michael Weiztman says can lead to their children having higher rates of behavioral and emotional problems such as withdrawing, being disruptive in school and failing to control behavior.

"For decades we’ve been concerned about depression in moms and its effects on children. Now we find that fathers have an effect on children," he says. "It’s a rudimentary field but I would imagine that brain development in those children are very different, living in a household with a shutdown parent or a father who is explosive has to have profoundly negative effects on kids."

Weitzman's work was published in The Maternal and Child Health Journal and in the Journal Pediatrics. He says as policy makers and regulatory bodies like the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force push for more mental health services and screenings for prenatal and postpartum mothers, similar efforts should be made for men.

"Many of the things that for decades we’ve associated with mothers being depressed it’s actually probably the father being depressed, a direct influence on the child, and the father being depressed having an influence on the mom and her ability to mother," Weitzman says.

Traditional depressive symptoms tend to be different in men, and are often tied to poverty and unemployment.

"Often there's anger and irritability and outbursts," Weitzman notes. "'I just can’t find any pleasure, I can’t think of anything that brings me pleasure' or 'I’ve lost my appetite or my drive for my job, it’s just gone.'"

Weitzman and his team are now investigating whether existing mental health policies will help to cut down on parental depression in the prenatal and postpartum period.

He says men may need to be screened in non-traditional ways like in their workplaces.