3-025 - Breaking the cycle: The role of intergenerational studies in child development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children often resemble their parents –for better or for worse. The transmission of parenting and psychosocial risk or resilience from parent to child creates a generation-to-generation cascade, entrenching disparities in health and opportunity in high-risk environments. The goal of this symposium is to explore and discuss the importance of intergenerational studies in child development research. The first paper uses data from a unique sample of children adopted at birth and their adoptive parents. Information from children’s birth parents was also collected, allowing the researchers to explicitly explore the distinct role of the rearing environment. Results suggest that birth mother’s vocabulary skills had a significant impact on their child’s executive functioning and language development. The second paper uses data from the Seattle Social Development project, a longitudinal study exploring the impact of a childhood preventive intervention. The intergenerational portion of the study explores the impact the intervention had on the offspring of the original participants. Results indicated significant intergenerational impact on key outcomes including developmental delays, psychiatric problems like oppositional defiance and attention issues, and even substance use initiation. The final paper leverages an existing two-generation cohort of predominately low/middle income African American families in Baltimore. It extends the investigation to a third generation to advance fundamental understandings of the development and malleability of self-regulation (SR) across the life course and across generations. Results of the longitudinal model indicate a significant association between impulsivity and adult outcomes including involvement in the criminal justice system, college attendance, and property ownership.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Rashelle Jean Musci, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Discussant

• Laura Scaramella, University of New Orleans

Individual Presentations

• Using an Adoption Design to Examine Genetic, Prenatal, and Temperament Influences on Language and Executive Functions - Presenting Author: Camille C. Cioffi, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Leslie D. Leve, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Griffin, University of Oregon; Non-Presenting Author: Misaki N Natsuaki, University of California, Riverside; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Jody Ganiban, George Washington University; Non-Presenting Author: David Reiss, Yale Child Study Center; Non-Presenting Author: Jenae Neiderhiser, The Pennsylvania State University

• Effects of Childhood Preventive Intervention Across Two Generations - Presenting Author: Karl G. Hill, Colorado University, Boulder; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer A. Bailey, Social Development Research Group; University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Christine M. Steeger, University of Colorado, Boulder; Non-Presenting Author: J. David Hawkins, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Richard F. Catalano, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Rick Kosterman, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Marina Epstein, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Robert D. Abbott, University of Washington

• Development and malleability of self-regulation across generations: Do better regulated children become better parents? - Presenting Author: Rashelle Jean Musci, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Non-Presenting Author: Kristin Voegtline, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Non-Presenting Author: Nicholas S. Lalongo, Johns Hopkins University; Non-Presenting Author: Sara Johnson, Johns Hopkins University