Maternal adverse childhood experiences on preschoolers' executive function: the chain mediating effect of parenting stress and child maltreatment

Abstract

Background: Previous researches found that maternal ACEs not only affect the psychological behavior of preschool children, but also have direct or indirect negative effects on the executive functions (EFs) and cognition of offspring. And, the possible social psychological mechanism between maternal ACEs and preschool children's EFs is still not clear. Objectives：This study mainly tries to understand the association between parenting stress and child maltreatment in maternal ACEs and children's EFs through longitudinal cohorts. Participants and Setting: Participants were 2160 preschool children and their mothers who finally completed baseline and 3 waves of follow-up. Methods: Using a cohort study, a baseline survey of junior kindergartens was carried out in June 2021 and followed up every six months, with a total of 3 follow-ups. Results: We found that EFs in preschoolers were significantly positively correlated with maternal ACEs, parenting stress, physical assault, psychological aggression, neglect and nonviolent discipline (r = 0.180, 0.386, 0.274, 0.302, 0.189, 0.148, respectively, P<0.01). Further, parenting stress and child maltreatment showed a chain mediating effect between maternal ACEs and EFs in preschoolers, and the total indirect effects accounted for 70.56%, 78.69%, 65.38%, and 68.07% of the total effect, respectively. Conclusions: This study found that maternal ACEs have a significant impact on the EFs of preschool children, and parenting stress and child maltreatment are the mediating factors of their association, revealing the potential mechanism between the two associations from the perspective of social psychology.