Poster #13 - Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: Parental Adversity and Unpredictability and Offspring Negative Affect at Six Months

• In Event: Poster Session 16

Abstract

Background: Developmental psychopathology is a significant public health problem (Office of the Surgeon General, 2021) with early roots (Muris & Ollendick, 2005). Recent work documents that trauma is transmitted intergenerationally and may be a risk factor for offspring psychopathology (Letourneau, et. al, 2021). However, it is unclear what the pathways are for this transmission or how early this phenomenon can be observed to allow for early identification and intervention. Furthermore, while the transgenerational impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has been examined, another crucial aspect of early life adversity, unpredictability, has not yet been studied. Negative affectivity in infancy is considered a significant transdiagnostic risk factor for later development of psychopathology and may thus be one possible pathway through which trauma is transmitted intergenerationally. The current study examines the relation between gestational parent early life adversity and unpredictability and offspring negative affect at six months of age.
Methods: Participants included 170 gestational parent-infant dyads who were recruited for a larger longitudinal study of pregnant individuals enriched for high first trimester depressive symptoms. Retrospective self-report data was collected from the gestational parent via the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q; Felitti, et. al, 1998) and the Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC; Glynn, et. al, 2019). Infant negative affectivity was assessed via the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R; Parade & Leerkes, 2008) at six months of age, adjusted for prematurity.
Results: Parental ACEs were correlated with parental QUIC scores (r = .69, p < .001). Parental ACEs were correlated with offspring negative affectivity (r = .18, p .02). Parental childhood QUIC scores and infant negative affectivity were not significantly correlated (ps > .05). After covarying for infant adjusted age, higher parental ACEs predicted higher infant negative affectivity (β=.19, p=.03).
Discussion: As infant negative affectivity is related to later development of psychopathology (Muris & Ollendick, 2005), the current study demonstrates one pathway through which the intergenerational transmission of trauma operates. Given that negative affectivity can be measured early in infancy and is relatively stable over time, it is good target for early identification of infants at risk of later psychopathology (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003).

Authors

• Tori Brennan, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• LillyBelle Ku'ulei Deer, University of Denver

• Ella-Marie P. Hennessey, University of Denver

• Benjamin Hankin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver