Maternal Parenting and Anxiety Mediate Associations between Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences on Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

• In Event: Parenting Practices as Mechanisms for Transmission of Maternal Risk Factors and Child Psychological Outcomes

Abstract

Maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long term health impacts, and a growing body of research supports intergenerational associations with their children’s health and risk for later psychopathology (Letourneau et al., 2019). However, research examining the specific pathways by which maternal ACEs confer greater risk for child psychopathology is lacking. Better understanding these potential mechanisms would facilitate the application of more tailored interventions, including prevention efforts, that might break the intergenerational cycle of risk for poor mental health. Two key modifiable pathways that have been proposed regarding the intergenerational association between maternal ACEs and child psychopathology are maternal psychopathology and parenting practices, but these pathways are understudied in large, racially diverse groups. We address this gap in the literature by investigating whether maternal ACEs are associated with children’s internalizing behaviors via maternal anxiety and parenting in a racially diverse longitudinal study of over 1000 children from the U.S. South.
We utilized data from the CANDLE study, a pregnancy cohort study (N = 1030 children; Mean age = 4.31). The CANDLE study is uniquely suited to address this research as its longitudinal design allowed us to test our associations across time while using a large, racially diverse (65% Black; 35% White/Other) sample. We used structural equation modeling to test the direct associations between maternal ACEs and children’s internalizing problems, as well as indirect associations via two simple mediating mechanisms (i.e., maternal anxiety and parenting), and one serial mediation (i.e., sequence of maternal anxiety to parenting). In addition to looking at a global parenting climate, we explored two explicit parental coaching practices understudied in the literature (i.e., cognitive growth fostering; social-emotional growth fostering) as mediators in separate models.
Findings demonstrated that maternal anxiety mediated the association between maternal ACEs and child internalizing problems (B = .06). This finding is consistent with the literature, but until now, has not been demonstrated in a large, diverse sample. Our model also revealed mediation of the ACEs-internalizing association by maternal cognitive growth fostering (B = .01). However, we were unable to confirm our serial mediation hypothesis as tests were only marginally significant.
In summary, findings underscore the importance of examining potential pathways through which maternal ACEs might confer risk for offspring mental health. Regarding specific pathways, our findings highlight the role of maternal psychopathology and parenting practices as potential mechanisms of this transmission. Given that these mediators are modifiable, there are multiple opportunities for screening, assessment, and earlier intervention for healthcare providers to consider that might help break the intergenerational cycle of risk associated with ACEs (Koita et al., 2018). Intervening after a child (or adult) has experienced adversity or trauma may not only help their future well-being, it could also improve mental health outcomes for the next generation.

Authors

• Emily W. Shih, University of California, San Francisco
  Presenting Author

• Shaikh I. Ahmad, University of California - San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole R Bush, University of California - San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author

• Danielle Roubinov, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Frances Tylavsky, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joyce Carolyn Graff, University of Tennessee Health Science Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine J. Karr, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sheela Sathyanarayana, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kaja Z. LeWinn, University of California, San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author