Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester, 187 Edinburgh St., Rochester, NY, 14607, United States.
Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester, 187 Edinburgh St., Rochester, NY, 14607, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Feb;112:104829. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104829. Epub 2020 Dec 22.
Child maltreatment poses substantial risk for compromised mental health in children. Further, child abuse and neglect are potentiated within a cascade of intergenerational and current familial risk processes that require clarification to inform understanding of adverse outcomes and direct prevention and intervention efforts.
Using a multi-informant design, the current study applied an intergenerational cascades approach to examine the interconnected pathways among several familial risk factors associated with child maltreatment and its consequences.
Participants were 378 children (aged 10-12) and their mothers from economically disadvantaged, ethnically diverse backgrounds. The sample included maltreated children recruited via CPS records and demographically comparable non-maltreated children.
Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test sequential mediation pathways examining the independent and cascading effects of maternal history of childhood maltreatment, maternal adolescent childbearing, current maternal depression, and the child's lifetime history of maltreatment on the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Multigenerational developmental cascades were identified. Maternal history of maltreatment predicted chronic maltreatment for offspring, which in turn predicted greater internalizing (β = .167, p = .03) and externalizing symptoms (β = .236, p = .005) in late childhood. Similarly, children born to mothers who began childbearing in adolescence were more likely to experience chronic maltreatment during childhood and develop subsequent symptoms. Effects were found over and above a parallel cascade from maternal maltreatment to offspring psychopathology via a maternal depression pathway.
Findings reveal targets to prevent or ameliorate progressions of intergenerational risk pathways.
儿童虐待对儿童心理健康造成严重风险。此外，虐待和忽视儿童的行为会在一系列代际和当前家庭风险过程中加剧，这些过程需要澄清，以了解不良后果，并直接进行预防和干预。
本研究采用多信息源设计，应用代际级联方法，考察与儿童虐待及其后果相关的几种家庭风险因素之间相互关联的途径。
参与者为 378 名来自经济贫困、种族多样背景的 10-12 岁儿童及其母亲。该样本包括通过 CPS 记录招募的受虐待儿童和在人口统计学上可比的未受虐待儿童。
结构方程模型（SEM）用于测试顺序中介途径，检验了母亲童年期虐待史、母亲青少年生育、当前母亲抑郁和儿童终生受虐待史对儿童内化和外化症状的独立和级联影响。
确定了多代发展级联。母亲的虐待史预测了后代的慢性虐待，进而预测了儿童在后期内化（β=0.167，p=0.03）和外化症状（β=0.236，p=0.005）的增加。同样，母亲在青少年时期开始生育的孩子更有可能在童年时期经历慢性虐待，并发展出随后的症状。这些影响是通过母亲虐待到后代精神病理学的平行级联以及通过母亲抑郁途径产生的。
研究结果揭示了预防或改善代际风险途径进展的目标。
