TY - JOUR
T1 - Intergenerational Transmission of Childhood Maltreatment Mediated by Maternal Emotion Dysregulation
AU - Rodriguez, Violeta J.
AU - Are, Funlola
AU - Madden, Amber
AU - Shaffer, Anne
AU - Suveg, Cynthia
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the William A. and Barbara R. Owens Institute for Behavioral Research at the University of Georgia; National Institute on Drug Abuse, Grant number: P30 DA027827. VJR’s work on this study was partially supported by a Ford Foundation Fellowship, administered by the National Academies of Science, and a PEO Scholar Award from the PEO Sisterhood. We thank the research personnel who made this study possible, and above all the women and children who participated in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - The identification of intermediate mechanisms that account for the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment can elucidate processes of risk and resilience in families. This study investigated the role of maternal emotion dysregulation; we hypothesized that emotion dysregulation would mediate the relation between mothers’ history of maltreatment in their childhood and their aggressive behavior toward their children. Participants included 110 mothers (range = 20 to 43 years, Mage = 30.81, SDage = 6.08) with preschool-aged children (range = 3 to 5 years, Mage = 3.50, SDage = 0.51; 61% male) in a diverse community sample (46.3% African American; 50.9% had a household income under $30,000). A path analysis showed that maternal history of maltreatment in their childhood was indirectly related to later maternal psychological aggression via maternal emotion dysregulation. The indirect effect of child maltreatment on physical aggression was not statistically significant. Our findings highlight the importance of emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic risk factor for the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment.
AB - The identification of intermediate mechanisms that account for the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment can elucidate processes of risk and resilience in families. This study investigated the role of maternal emotion dysregulation; we hypothesized that emotion dysregulation would mediate the relation between mothers’ history of maltreatment in their childhood and their aggressive behavior toward their children. Participants included 110 mothers (range = 20 to 43 years, Mage = 30.81, SDage = 6.08) with preschool-aged children (range = 3 to 5 years, Mage = 3.50, SDage = 0.51; 61% male) in a diverse community sample (46.3% African American; 50.9% had a household income under $30,000). A path analysis showed that maternal history of maltreatment in their childhood was indirectly related to later maternal psychological aggression via maternal emotion dysregulation. The indirect effect of child maltreatment on physical aggression was not statistically significant. Our findings highlight the importance of emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic risk factor for the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment.
KW - Childhood maltreatment
KW - Emotion dysregulation
KW - Intergenerational transmission
KW - Parenting
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U2 - 10.1007/s10826-021-02020-3
DO - 10.1007/s10826-021-02020-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85109005479
SN - 1062-1024
VL - 30
SP - 2068
EP - 2075
JO - Journal of Child and Family Studies
JF - Journal of Child and Family Studies
IS - 8
ER -