Maternal adverse childhood experiences,attachment style,and mental health: Pathways of transmission to child behavior problems

BackgroundInvestigations have found mothers’ adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) confer an intergenerational risk to their children's outcomes. However, mechanisms underlying this transmission have only been partially explained by maternal mental health. Adult attachment insecurity has been shown to mediate the association of ACEs and mental health outcomes, yet an extension of this research to children's behavioral problems has not been examined.ObjectiveTo examine the cascade from maternal ACEs to risk for child behavioral problems at five years of age, via mothers’ attachment insecurity and mental health.Participants and settingParticipants in the current study were 1994 mother-child dyads from a prospective longitudinal cohort collected from January 2011 to October 2014.MethodsMothers retrospectively reported their ACEs when children were 36 months of age. When children were 60 months of age, mothers completed measures of their attachment style, depression and anxiety symptoms, and their children's behavior problems.ResultsPath analysis demonstrated maternal ACEs were associated with children's internalizing problems indirectly via maternal attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and depression symptoms, but not directly (β = .05, 95% CI [−.001, .10]). Maternal ACEs indirectly predicted children's externalizing problems via maternal attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and depression. A direct effect was also observed from maternal ACEs to child externalizing problems (β = .06, 95% CI [.01, .11]).ConclusionsMaternal ACEs influenced children's risk for poor behavioral outcomes via direct and indirect intermediary pathways. Addressing maternal insecure attachment style and depression symptoms as intervention targets for mothers with histories of ACEs may help to mitigate the intergenerational transmission of risk.     

Frontal asymmetry assessed in infancy using functional near-infrared spectroscopy is associated with emotional and behavioral problems in early childhood

Frontal asymmetry (FA), the difference in brain activity between the left versus right frontal areas, is thought to reflect approach versus avoidance motivation. This study (2012–2021) used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate if infant (M_age = 7.63 months; N = 90; n = 48 male; n = 75 White) FA in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relates to psychopathology in later childhood (M_age = 62.05 months). Greater right FA to happy faces was associated with increased internalizing (η² = .09) and externalizing (η² = .06) problems at age 5 years. Greater right FA to both happy and fearful faces was associated with an increased likelihood of a lifetime anxiety diagnosis (R² > .13). FA may be an informative and early-emerging marker for psychopathology.     

Maternal experiences of childhood abuse and intimate partner violence: Psychopathology and functional impairment in clinical children and adolescents

Objectives

The current study examined the independent effects of mothers’ childhood abuse (CA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) on psychopathology and functional impairment in children; and the potential moderating and mediating role of individual and family factors in these relationships. Additionally, this study explored the potential cumulative effects of both maternal CA and IPV on children's outcomes.

Method

The sample included 547 Spanish children and adolescents aged between 8 and 17 years, and their parents, who had accessed mental health services. The assessment was based on structured interviews with the children and their parents. Statistical analyses were carried out through hierarchical multiple, negative-binomial and logistic regressions, and Structural Equation Models.

Results

Children whose mothers experienced CA and those whose mothers suffered physical IPV showed increased DSM-IV disruptive disorders and externalizing behavior problems, respectively. Children who directly observed physical IPV and also suffered physical punishment by parents showed increased internalizing problems. IPV had effects, either direct or indirect by physical punishment, on children's externalizing problems. Cumulative effect analyses indicated that the prevalence of disruptive disorders was highest in children whose mothers had suffered both CA and IPV.

Conclusion

Spanish children whose mothers have suffered CA, IPV or both, are at high risk of serious conduct problems, whereas children exposed to IPV and who were also physically abused are at greater risk of internalizing problems. Physical punishment of children contributes in part to explain externalizing problems of IPV-exposed children. These findings indicate potential targets of assessment and intervention for families seeking help in mental health services.     

Amplitude envelope perception, phonology and prosodic sensitivity in children with developmental dyslexia

Here we explore relations between auditory perception of amplitude envelope structure, prosodic sensitivity, and phonological awareness in a sample of 56 typically-developing children and children with developmental dyslexia. We examine whether rise time sensitivity is linked to prosodic sensitivity, and whether prosodic sensitivity is linked to phonological awareness. Prosodic sensitivity was measured by two reiterant speech tasks modelled on Kitzen (2001). The children with developmental dyslexia were significantly impaired in the reiterant speech tasks and in the phonological awareness tasks (onset and rime awareness). There were significant predictive relations between basic auditory processing of amplitude envelope structure (in particular, rise time), prosodic sensitivity, phonological awareness, reading, and spelling. The auditory processing difficulties that characterise children with developmental dyslexia appear to impair their sensitivity to phrase-level prosodic cues such as metrical structure as well as to phonology, but in this study phonological and prosodic sensitivity made largely independent contributions to reading.     

Longitudinal associations among interest,persistence, supportive parenting,and achievement in early childhood

This study investigates two facets of children's school readiness: interest in new cognitive tasks (interest) and persistence in task completion (persistence). Little attention has been paid to the early development of these learning behaviors, although they might prove susceptible to intervention even before school entry. Using data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a sample of low-income children (N = 1771) was followed to model bidirectional associations among interest and persistence and maternal supportive parenting between ages 1 and 3, and estimate associations between children's interest and persistence at age 3 and their academic skills at age 5. Results indicate that maternal supportive parenting influences children's interest and persistence more strongly and consistently than interest or persistence influences parenting, and that interest but not persistence transacts with parenting over time. Interest and persistence were equally predictive of children's early academic skills. Findings affirm that both interest and persistence during toddlerhood predict children's academic standing at school entry.     

The linkages among childhood maltreatment, adolescent mental health, and self-compassion in child welfare adolescents

Objectives

Childhood maltreatment is a robust risk factor for poor physical and mental health. Child welfare youths represent a high-risk group, given the greater likelihood of severe or multiple types of maltreatment. This study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment and self-compassion – a concept of positive acceptance of self. While not applied previously to a child welfare sample, self-compassion may be of value in understanding impairment among maltreatment victims. This may be most pertinent in adolescence and young adulthood, when self-identity is a focal developmental process.

Methods

The present sample was drawn from the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) Longitudinal Study, which followed randomly selected adolescents receiving child protection services across two years within an urban catchment area. Child maltreatment was assessed at baseline using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ( [Bernstein et al., 1994] and [Bernstein et al., 2003] ). Mental health, substance and alcohol use problems, suicide attempt, and self-compassion were assessed at the two-year follow-up point. There were 117 youths, aged 16–20 years (45.3% males) who completed the self-compassion scale (Neff, 2003). Bivariate correlations were computed between adolescent self-compassion and each form of self-reported maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect). Finally, hierarchical, stepwise regression was used to examine unique contributions of child maltreatment subtypes in predicting adolescent self-compassion, as well as maltreatment-related impairment.

Results

Higher childhood emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical abuse were associated with lower self-compassion. Controlling for age and gender, emotional abuse was significantly associated with reduced self-compassion, even when the effects of emotional neglect and physical abuse were taken into account. Youths with low self-compassion were more likely to have psychological distress, problem alcohol use, and report a serious suicide attempt, as compared with those with high self-compassion. A number of maltreatment-related areas of impairment, identified by screening instruments, were significantly associated with lower self-compassion.

Conclusion

Self-compassion may be a fruitful aspect of research to pursue in an effort to better understand the impact of childhood emotional abuse on adolescent functioning, particularly considering the under-researched group of those receiving child protective services.     

The joint contribution of early parental warmth, communication and tracking, and early child conduct problems on monitoring in late childhood

The relationship of parental warmth, communication, and tracking (WCT), and child conduct problems in early elementary school (age 5.5 years) to monitoring in late elementary school (age 9.5 years) was longitudinally examined in a sample of 267 boys and girls. WCT in kindergarten was associated with lower kindergarten levels and less growth of conduct problems into the first grade, and was prospectively associated with effective monitoring in the third and fourth grades. Overt and covert conduct problems in kindergarten and growth in covert problems during kindergarten and first grade were associated with less effective later monitoring. Early conduct problems mediated the prospective association of WCT on later monitoring. The results are described in a transactional model of parent-child relationships and child problem behavior.     

Cumulative environmental risk in substance abusing women: early intervention, parenting stress, child abuse potential and child development

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between cumulative environmental risks and early intervention, parenting attitudes, potential for child abuse and child development in substance abusing mothers. METHOD: We studied 161 substance-abusing women, from a randomized longitudinal study of a home based early intervention, who had custody of their children through 18 months. The intervention group received weekly home visits in the first 6 months and biweekly visits from 6 to 18 months. Parenting stress and child abuse potential were assessed at 6 and 18 months postpartum. Children's mental and motor development (Bayley MDI and PDI) and language development (REEL) were assessed at 6, 12, and 18 months postpartum. Ten maternal risk factors were assessed: maternal depression, domestic violence, nondomestic violence, family size, incarceration, no significant other in home, negative life events, psychiatric problems, homelessness, and severity of drug use. Level of risk was recoded into four categories (2 or less, 3, 4, and 5 or more), which had adequate cell sizes for repeated measures analysis. DATA ANALYSIS: Repeated measures analyses were run to examine how level of risk and group (intervention or control) were related to parenting stress, child abuse potential, and children's mental, motor and language development over time. RESULTS: Parenting stress and child abuse potential were higher for women with five risks or more compared with women who had four or fewer risks; children's mental, motor, and language development were not related to level of risk. Children in the intervention group had significantly higher scores on the PDI at 6 and 18 months (107.4 vs. 103.6 and 101.1 vs. 97.2) and had marginally better scores on the MDI at 6 and 12 months (107.7 vs. 104.2 and 103.6 vs. 100.1), compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: Compared to drug-abusing women with fewer than five risks, women with five or more risks found parenting more stressful and indicated greater inclination towards abusive and neglectful behavior, placing their infants at increased risk for poor parenting, abuse and neglect. Early home-based intervention in high-risk families may be beneficial to infant development.     

Timing of the first report and highest level of child protection response in association with early developmental vulnerabilities in an Australian population cohort

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment is associated with early childhood developmental vulnerabilities. However, the extent to which higher levels of child protection responses confer benefit to developmental competencies, and the impact of earlier timing of first reports in relation to early childhood vulnerability remains unclear.ObjectiveWe examined associations between early developmental vulnerabilities and (1) the highest level of child protection response (where OOHC was deemed the highest response among other types of reports/responses), and (2) the developmental timing of the first child protection report.Participants and SettingParticipants included 67,027 children from the New South Wales Child Development Study, of whom 10,944 were reported to child protection services up to age 5 years.MethodsA series of Multinomial Logistic Regressions were conducted to examine focal associations.ResultsChildren with substantiated maltreatment reports showed the strongest odds of vulnerability on three or more developmental domains (adjusted OR = 4.90; 95% CI = 4.13–5.80); children placed in OOHC showed slightly better physical, cognitive and communication competencies (adjusted ORs from 1.83 to 2.65) than those with substantiated reports that did not result in OOHC placements (adjusted OR from 2.77 to 3.67), when each group was compared to children with no child protection reports. Children with first maltreatment reports occurring in the first 18 months of life showed the strongest likelihood of developmental vulnerabilities on three or more developmental domains (adjusted OR = 3.56; 95% CI = 3.15–4.01) relative to children with no child protection reports.ConclusionEarlier reports of maltreatment may signal the need for targeted remediation of early developmental competencies to mitigate early developmental difficulties.     

A study of associations among attachment patterns,maltreatment, and behavior problem in institutionalized children in Japan

The present study investigates the relationships among children's history of maltreatment, attachment patterns, and behavior problems in Japanese institutionalized children. Twenty-nine children (12 boys and 17 girls) from three different institutions in the Kinki area (Western part of Japan) participated in this study. Their average age was 6. 41-years (ranging from 4 to 10). Thirteen of the children (44.8%) had history of maltreatment before they were institutionalized. Children's attachment was assessed by the Attachment Doll Play Assessment (George & Solomon, 1990, 1996, 2000). The child’s main caregiver answered the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Archenbach, 1991) to identify children's behavior problems. Results indicated a significant relationship between maltreatment history and attachment pattern. The relationship between attachment pattern and behavior problem was also confirmed. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed.     

Maltreatment,family environment,and social risk factors: Determinants of the child welfare to juvenile justice transition among maltreated children and adolescents

This study prospectively examines the transition from the child welfare system into the juvenile justice system among 10,850 maltreated children and adolescents and explores how patterns of risks, including severity and chronicity of maltreatment, adverse family environment, and social risk factors, affect service systems transition. Almost three percent of maltreated children and adolescents had their first juvenile justice adjudication within an average of approximately six years of their initial child protective services investigation (CPS). Social risk factors, including a child’s age at index CPS investigation (older), gender (boys), and race/ethnicity (Black and Hispanic) significantly predicted the risk of transition into the juvenile justice system. Recurrence of maltreatment and experiencing at least one incident of neglect over the course of the study period also increased the risk of transition into the juvenile justice system. However, subtypes of maltreatment, including physical, sexual, and other types of abuse did not significantly predict the risk of juvenile justice system transition. Finally, family environment characterized by poverty also significantly increased the risk of juvenile justice system transition. These findings have important implications for developing and tailoring services for maltreated children, particularly those at-risk for transitioning into the juvenile justice system.     

Parental sensitivity and attachment in children with autism spectrum disorder: comparison with children with mental retardation, with language delays, and with typical development

This study on sensitivity and attachment included 55 toddlers and their parents. Samples included children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), mental retardation, language delay, and typical development. Children were diagnosed at 4 years of age. Two years before diagnosis, attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation procedure, and parental sensitivity and child involvement during free play were assessed with the Emotional Availability Scale. Parents of children with ASD were equally sensitive as parents of children without ASD, but their children showed more attachment disorganization and less child involvement. More sensitive parents had more secure children, but only in the group without ASD. Less severe autistic symptoms in the social domain predicted more attachment security. Autism challenges the validity of attachment theory.