Effects of maternal childhood trauma on child emotional health: maternal mental health and frontoamygdala pathways

Abstract

Background Experiences of early life adversity pose significant psychological and physical health risks to exposed individuals. Emerging evidence suggests that these health risks can be transmitted across generations; however, the mechanisms underlying the intergenerational impacts of maternal early‐life trauma on child health remain unknown. Methods The current study used a prospective longitudinal design to determine the unique and joint contributions of maternal childhood trauma (neglect and abuse) and maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health (anxiety and depressive symptoms) (N = 541) to children's resting frontoamygdala functional connectivity at 6 years (N = 89) and emotional health at 7–8 years, as indexed by parent‐reported internalizing problems and child self‐reported anxiety and depressive symptoms (N = 268–418). Results Greater maternal childhood neglect was indirectly associated with greater internalizing problems serially through a pathway of worse maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health (greater maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms). Worse maternal postnatal mental health was also uniquely associated with more negative child frontoamygdala resting‐state functional connectivity, over and above maternal childhood trauma (both neglect and abuse) and prenatal mental health. More negative frontoamygdala functional connectivity was, in turn, associated with poorer child emotional health outcomes. Conclusions Findings from the current study provide support for the existence of intergenerational influences of parental exposure to childhood trauma on childhood risk for psychopathology in the next generation and point to the importance of maternal factors proximal to the second generation (maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health) in determining the intergenerational impact of maternal early experiences.

Kids are all in the same storm but not in the same boat.

“…This can serve as a valuable source of cost:benefit information for policy interventions. Finally, there are increasingly sophisticated methodologies to study the intergenerational transmission of trauma (e.g., Uy et al, 2023).…”

Emotional abuse mediated by negative automatic thoughts impacts functional connectivity during adolescence

“…Fronto-limbic circuits ( Teicher and Samson, 2013 ) and functional coupling between the amygdala and mPFC play critical roles in emotional processing and regulation related to childhood abuse ( Uy et al, 2023 ). Nevertheless, how negative automatic thoughts contribute to spontaneous functional neural systems in adolescents reporting emotional abuse is yet to be elucidated.…”

Relación entre la enfermedad mental materna y la presencia de trastornos mentales en los hijos

“…La literatura existente sugiere que la enfermedad mental materna (por ejemplo, trastornos de ansiedad, trastorno bipolar, trastorno por consumo de sustancias, entre otros) está vinculada a un mayor riesgo de problemas emocionales, conductuales y trastornos mentales en los hijos (3)(4)(5)(6). Además, la psicopatología durante la infancia tiene implicaciones a largo plazo, como dificultades en relaciones interpersonales, bajo rendimiento académico, comportamiento delictivo y un mayor riesgo de trastornos mentales en la edad adulta (7)(8)(9).…”