Patterns of maternal adverse childhood experiences and the intergenerational association of preschool children's emotional and behavioral problems.

Introduction: Children of whose mothers exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at increased risk for developmental problems. This study aims to investigate the relationship between types and patterns of maternal ACEs and preschool children's emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) in China, and to explore gender differences associated with these problems. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we selected 9,647 children from 36 preschools in three cities of Anhui province, China. Questionnaires were used to report the details of maternal ACEs and children's EBPs. We used the latent class analysis (LCA) to identify "patterns" in the types of maternal ACEs. Binomial logistic regressions was performed to examine the relationship between types and patterns of maternal ACEs and preschoolers' EBPs. Results: Latent class analysis (LCA) revealed four different classes of maternal ACEs. Logistic regression analysis showed that compared with the low ACEs class, children of mothers in the high abuse and neglect class had the highest risk of developing EBPs (OR = 5.93, 95%CI: 4.70-7.49), followed by moderate ACEs class (OR = 2.44, 95%CI: 1.98-3.00), and high household dysfunction class (OR = 2.16, 95%CI: 1.19-3.90). We found gender differences in the effects of high abuse and neglect/moderate ACEs class and maternal childhood physical abuse/neglect on children's EBPs, which had a stronger impact on EBPs in boys than girls (P<0.05). Discussion: This study supports and refines existing research that confirms an intergenerational association between types and patterns of maternal ACEs and children's EBPs in a large Chinese sample, so as to provide references for the early prevention and control of children's EBPs.

Association of maternal and paternal adverse childhood experiences with emotional and behavioral problems among preschool children.

Although maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known to be related to the emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) of offspring, few studies have surveyed the intergenerational effects of paternal ACEs. In addition, no study has yet explored the combination and interaction effects of maternal and paternal ACEs on preschool children's EBPs in China, and the gender differences in these relationships also remain to be explored. A total of 3,575 preschool children from 12 preschools from Hefei city of Anhui province were included in this study. We used a binomial logistic regression to examine the relationship between maternal ACEs, paternal ACEs and children's EBPs. Logistic regression analysis indicated that maternal and paternal ACEs were significantly related to EBPs in children, respectively. The high maternal ACEs + high paternal ACEs group had the greatest association with children's EBPs. Interaction analysis results showed that, compared with the reference group (low maternal ACEs×low paternal ACEs), the other group (high maternal ACEs×high paternal ACEs ) were significantly related to children's EBPs (OR = 1.84, 95%CI: 1.55-2.19). We found that there were no gender differences in the combination and interaction effects (P>0.05). When fathers and mothers were jointly exposed to high levels of ACEs, children had a higher risk of developing EBPs than when they were exposed independently. Future studies should fully explore the intergenerational health effects of parental ACEs so that references for promoting the physical and mental health of preschool children can be developed.

Maternal parenting stress and social-emotional problems of Chinese preschoolers: The role of the mother-child relationship and maternal adverse childhood experiences.

BACKGROUND: Previous research suggests that maternal parenting stress is a significant predictor of social-emotional problems in children. However, little is known regarding the mother-child relationship and the effect of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on this association. METHODS: Three waves of longitudinal panel data were collected from 2893 Chinese preschoolers with a follow-up interval of 6 months. The mothers of preschoolers were asked to complete anonymous questionnaires concerning demographic variables, maternal ACEs and parenting stress in Wave 1, mother-child relationships in Wave 2, and children's social-emotional problems in Wave 3. The parallel mediation model was conducted to analyze the mediating role of three dimensions of mother-child relationships, and the moderation model was conducted to examine the moderating role of maternal ACEs. RESULTS: The results showed that maternal parenting stress predicted children's social-emotional problems directly or indirectly through the mother-child relationship, with an intimate mother-child relationship mediating this main effect negatively but a conflicted and dependent mother-child relationship mediating this main effect positively. In addition, moderating results indicated that the main effect of maternal parenting stress on children's social-emotional problems was more marked among participants with at least one maternal ACEs than those without maternal ACEs. Furthermore, the moderating effect was only detected in children whose mothers had a high school education or less. LIMITATIONS: The subjectivity of mothers' reports may somewhat reduce the credibility due to the possible overestimation or underestimation of children's social-emotional problems. CONCLUSION: These findings provide new evidence for the effects of maternal parenting stress on children's social-emotional development and highlight the need for more attention to children with mothers having ACE exposure, lower educational level and poor parent-child relationships.