The impacts of maternal childhood adversity, stress, and mental health on child development at 6 months in Taiwan: A follow-up study

Abstract

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is not only associated with one's adverse health outcomes in adulthood but also increases the risk of child developmental problems in offspring. However, the mechanisms involved in the transmission of the effects of maternal ACEs to the offspring largely remain unexplored. This study sought to identify possible psychosocial pathways of intergenerational effects of maternal ACEs on child development at 6 months. Data from a longitudinal study on maternal childhood adversity and maternal psychosocial risk during pregnancy as well as maternal mental health problems and child development at 6 months postnatal were used. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was used to estimate the indirect effects of maternal ACEs on child development at 6 months. The model showed that maternal ACEs indirectly influenced offspring's development via maternal stressful events during pregnancy and pre- and postnatal mental health problems. This finding highlights the possible interventions at the prenatal and postnatal periods. Early identification of women who have ACEs or who are at psychosocial risk during pre- and postnatal periods is critical to provide interventions to buffer those negative effects on offspring's development. Future studies are needed to longitudinally assess the effects of maternal ACEs on child development over time.

Intergenerational Transmission of Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences on Next Generation’s Development: A Mini-Review

“…One study that examined the correlation between maternal ACEs and subscales of child development measures indicated that only gross motor skills had a significant positive correlation with maternal ACEs ( r = 0.15; Coe et al, 2020 ). In contrast, two studies showed null results ( Racine et al, 2018 ; Chang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Based on the original ACE scale, Racine et al (2018) measured adversities using 11 items across eight categories (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exposure to familial substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, incarceration, and separation/divorce). Chang et al (2021) used a 14-item revised ACE scale that included four additional adversities: low socioeconomic status (SES), peer victimization, peer isolation/rejection, and exposure to community violence ( Finkelhor et al, 2015 ). All measures of ACEs were reported retrospectively, so there can be a risk of recall bias.…”

“…In all studies, parents responded to validated questionnaires. Three studies used the Age and Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition (ASQ-3; Folger et al, 2018 ; Racine et al, 2018 ; Coe et al, 2020 ), one study used the Age and Stage Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE; McDonnell and Valentino, 2016 ), one study used the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS; Sun et al, 2017 ), and one study used the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study–Developmental Instrument (TBCS-DI; Chang et al (2021) . These questionnaires mainly assess the following domains of general development: gross motor, fine motor, problem-solving, communication, and personal/social ( Squires et al, 2001 ; Glascoe, 2003 ; Singh et al, 2017 ).…”

“…To examine the bivariate association between maternal ACEs and child developmental delay, correlation analysis ( McDonnell and Valentino, 2016 ; Racine et al, 2018 ; Coe et al, 2020 ; Chang et al, 2021 ), χ 2 -test ( Folger et al, 2018 ), and crude model of multinomial regression analysis ( Sun et al, 2017 ) were applied. Of the six studies, three showed significant positive bivariate associations between maternal ACEs and child outcomes ( McDonnell and Valentino, 2016 ; Sun et al, 2017 ; Coe et al, 2020 ), whereas three showed null results ( Folger et al, 2018 ; Racine et al, 2018 ; Chang et al, 2021 ). For example, McDonnell and Valentino (2016) examined the effects of maternal childhood experiences of abuse and family dysfunction on developmental delay in children.…”

“…Two studies examined prenatal factors ( Racine et al, 2018 ; Chang et al, 2021 ), four studies examined postnatal factors ( Sun et al, 2017 ; Folger et al, 2018 ; Racine et al, 2018 ; Chang et al, 2021 ), and one study examined pre to postnatal factors ( McDonnell and Valentino, 2016 ).…”