From Mothers’ Childhood Maltreatment to Next Generation Adjustment: Developmental Cascades of Socioeconomic Risk and Parenting

• In Event: Maternal Adversity and Child Psychopathology in the First Years of Life: Parenting Difficulties as Mechanisms

Abstract

Introduction: Relative to their peers, children are at higher risk of developing physical and mental health problems if their parents report high socioeconomic risk (Evans et al., 2013) or experienced maltreatment during their own childhood (Schickedanz et al., 2018). This transmission of risk may be mediated by less-positive parenting, which has been documented in parents who experience high levels of relational or socioeconomic stress (Racine et al., 2018).

However, little research has examined the role of parenting in this transmission of risk or attempted to disentangle the effects of parents’ childhood maltreatment and current socioeconomic risk. The current study responds to an urgent need to identify malleable contributors to poor child outcomes that could inform interventions and policy that are effective, economical, and improve wellbeing across multiple generations.

Method: Mothers (N = 387) and their children were followed from pregnancy through child age 3-years (Borkowski et al., 2013). Mothers were racially and economically diverse. Mothers provided demographic information during pregnancy, and a cumulative socioeconomic risk index was computed from mothers’ age, race, education, income, marital and occupational status. At child age 6-months, mothers completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1998). The total score—the sum of all maltreatment subtypes—was used.

Self-reported parenting styles (Parenting Style Questionnaire; Sommer et al., 2000) and observed behavior at child-age 8 months (e.g., warmth, responsiveness; Landry et al., 1997) were used to create a latent positive parenting factor. Mothers rated their children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms at 36 months (Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment; Briggs-Gowan & Carter, 1998).

Results: A structural equation model was estimated using bias-corrected bootstrapping to test the indirect effects of mothers’ childhood maltreatment on their children’s 36-month internalizing and externalizing problems via current socioeconomic risk and parenting. Covariates included infant sex and adjustment problems at 24-months.

Model fit was good (RMSEA=.04, CFI=.98, and SRMR=.06). Mothers’ childhood maltreatment predicted greater socioeconomic risk (β=.15, p < .05) and less positive parenting (β=-.14, p < .015), but did not have a direct effect on internalizing or externalizing problems. Childhood maltreatment indirectly predicted internalizing and externalizing problems via unique paths. Greater childhood maltreatment predicted higher externalizing problems via the additive effects of higher demographic risk and less positive parenting in infancy (β=.07, p < .01). Greater childhood maltreatment predicted higher levels of internalizing symptoms via higher demographic risk only (β=.03, p < .06).

Conclusion: Parenting and demographic risk in infancy are both mechanisms of risk and possible intervention points. Public policy based in a multi-generational framework may be most effective at interrupting risk cycles. Both early intervention and direct socioeconomic support to families could improve parenting for at-risk caregivers and enhance wellbeing in the next generation of children.

Author

• Alex Busuito, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  Presenting Author