Zhang Lixia, Mersky Joshua P, Gruber Anne Marie H, Kim June-Yung
University of Louisville, USA.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.
Trauma Violence Abuse. 2023 Dec;24(5):3251-3264. doi: 10.1177/15248380221126186. Epub 2022 Oct 7.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are among the leading environmental causes of morbidity and mortality. Extending research on within-generation effects, more recent scholarship has explored between-generation consequences of ACEs. Despite growing interest in the intergenerational effects of parents' ACEs on children's outcomes, this line of scholarship has yet to be coalesced into a comprehensive review. The current study is a scoping review on the intergenerational transmission of parental ACEs and children's outcomes. Ten databases such as PubMed, APA PsycArticles, and Social Work Abstracts were searched. To be included, empirical studies must have been published in English and analyzed associations between a cumulative measure of at least four parental ACEs and children's outcomes. Sixty-eight studies qualified for the review and, among these, 60 were published in the most recent 5 years (2018-2022). Fifty-one studies had sample sizes smaller than 500, and 55 focused on the effect of maternal ACEs. Nearly all studies demonstrated that parental ACEs could affect children's outcomes directly or indirectly via mechanisms like maternal mental health problems or parenting-related factors. By scoping the extant literature, this review advances the knowledge base regarding the intergenerational impacts of parental childhood trauma and children's outcomes. It also reveals methodological limitations that should be addressed in future research to strengthen causal inferences along with practical implications for interventions that aim to interrupt the intergenerational transmission of trauma.
童年不良经历(ACEs)是导致发病和死亡的主要环境因素之一。在对代内效应进行研究的基础上,最近的学术研究探讨了ACEs的代际影响。尽管人们对父母的ACEs对孩子的影响的代际效应越来越感兴趣,但这一学术领域尚未形成全面的综述。本研究是对父母ACEs的代际传递及其对孩子影响的范围综述。检索了PubMed、美国心理学会心理学文摘数据库(APA PsycArticles)和社会工作摘要数据库(Social Work Abstracts)等10个数据库。纳入的实证研究必须以英文发表,并分析了至少四种父母ACEs的累积测量与孩子的影响之间的关联。68项研究符合综述要求,其中60项发表于最近5年(2018 - 2022年)。51项研究的样本量小于500,55项研究关注母亲ACEs的影响。几乎所有研究都表明,父母的ACEs可通过母亲心理健康问题或与养育相关的因素等机制直接或间接影响孩子的状况。通过梳理现有文献,本综述推进了关于父母童年创伤的代际影响及其对孩子状况影响的知识库。它还揭示了方法学上的局限性,未来研究应加以解决,以加强因果推断,同时揭示对旨在阻断创伤代际传递的干预措施的实际意义。