The intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment: Nonspecificity of maltreatment type and associations with borderline personality pathology

Abstract

One generation's experience of childhood maltreatment is associated with that of the next. However, whether this intergenerational transmission is specific to distinct forms of maltreatment and what factors may contribute to its continuity remains unclear. Borderline personality pathology is predicted by childhood maltreatment and characterized by features (e.g., dysregulated emotion, relationship instability, impulsivity, and inconsistent appraisals of others) that may contribute to its propagation. Among 364 older adults and 573 of their adult children (total n = 937), self-reported exposure to distinct forms of childhood maltreatment (i.e., emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect as assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) showed homotypic and heterotypic associations across generations with little evidence that latent factors unique to specific forms of maltreatment show generational continuity. General nonspecific indices of childhood maltreatment showed evidence of intergenerational transmission after accounting for demographic factors and parent socioeconomic status (b = 0.126, p = 9.21 × 10−4). This continuity was partially mediated by parental borderline personality pathology (assessed longitudinally through a variety of measures and sources, indirect effect: b = 0.031, 95% confidence interval [0.003, 0.060]). The intergenerational continuity of childhood maltreatment may largely represent general risk for nonspecific maltreatment that may, in part, be propagated by borderline personality pathology and/or shared risk factors.

Infant Deaths From Medical Causes After a Maltreatment Report

“…4 Given the sheer number of children involved with CPS, significant attention has been devoted to documenting sociodemographic and other risk factors that uniquely characterize children who are reported for alleged maltreatment. Not surprisingly, when the profile of children reported to CPS is compared to that of the general population, it becomes clear that these children often face complex individual, [5][6][7] family, [8][9][10] and community [11][12][13] risk factors operating in both an additive and interacting fashion.…”

“…Families with children reported to CPS often have risk factors [8][9][10] that may make providing adequate care to their children and meeting children's health care needs more difficult, especially during infancy. In the current study, we investigated whether reports to CPS and system decisions to place a child in foster care after a report were associated with risk of death from medical causes during infancy.…”

The Impact of Personality Pathology Across Three Generations: Evidence From the St. Louis Personality and Intergenerational Network Study

“…Descriptive statistics for G1 PD measures are in Table S1 in the Supplemental Material available online. Consistent with previous research with this sample, scores were treated continuously to preserve variation at diagnostically subthreshold levels (e.g., Paul et al, 2019). Informant reports were included given evidence that they add unique information about an individual's personality that the participant may be unable or unwilling to provide (T. F. Oltmanns & Turkheimer, 2006).…”

“…Genetic vulnerabilities to PD symptoms and related problems likely interact with adverse environments, and adverse environments are more likely to occur in families of individuals with high levels of personality pathology (Fatimah et al, 2020;Laulik et al, 2013;Wilson & Durbin, 2012). At the family level, parental personality pathology may also increase risk for child psychopathology via perpetration of abuse and/or neglect, exposure to relationship violence, and creation of coercive or invalidating family environments that maladaptively reinforce children's emotional and behavioral problems (Beauchaine et al, 2009;Johnson et al, 2006;Laulik et al, 2013Laulik et al, , 2016Paul et al, 2019;Stepp et al, 2011). Genetic risk may be exacerbated by poor parenting practices, which are often included in theoretical and statistical models of familial transmission of personality pathology and related constructs (Adshead, 2015;Oliver et al, 2009;Shaw & Starr, 2019) and commonly implicated in the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children (Pinquart, 2017a(Pinquart, , 2017b.…”

The borderline feature of negative relationships and the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment between mothers and adolescents.

“…Lacking from the literature on the intersection of BPD and maltreatment, however, is the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment in families whose mother has BPD, which is significant, given the strikingly high rates of maltreatment in both generations. There is only one study to date investigating the role of maternal borderline personality in the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment, which found continuity of maltreatment was partially mediated by parental borderline pathology (Paul et al, 2019).…”