Intergenerational Adversity and Early Childhood Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Examination of Adversity's Developmental Consequences Among African-American and Latino Children

Introduction: Early life experiences establish the foundation for a lifetime of physical and mental vitality and groundwork begins even before birth, long before adults become parents. Adverse childhood experiences pose significant threats to this foundation and towards lifelong health and vitality as they create early social conditions that undermine development and contribute to adult health risk behaviors. These exposures to adversity take place within the context of the family where the biological and social interdependence of parents and children occur immediately upon birth. This study focused on this early socio-developmental context and investigated the accumulation of intergenerational adversities relative to proximal consequences on child socio-emotional well-being during early periods of development (ages 1, 3 and 5) across racial/ethnic groups.

Methods:  This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N=4,898) with nationally representative sample of African-American and Latino children in U.S. urban cities. Outcome measure is socio-emotional health at ages 1, 3, and 5 measured by the 12-item Emotionality and Shyness scale from the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability Temperament Survey for Children. Predictor measure is intergenerational adversity measured by summing the number of adversities and disadvantages experienced by the child’s biological parents (e.g. experiences of physical abuse, witnessing violence, health problems and economic deprivation). A latent growth curve analysis was used to test hypothesized relationships between adversity accumulation and socio-emotional developmental trajectories. Goodness of fit of the model was assessed using chi-square test statistic, comparative fit index, and the root mean square error of approximation. Multiple group analysis was conducted to test for differences between African-Americans and Latinos.

Results and Conclusion: Results show adversity’s influence on developmental trajectories, with stronger effects evident among African-American children compared to Latino children. Symptoms of child psychopathology may often appear only after a child’s critical years. Results from this study reveal associations and symptoms useful for very early assessment of psychopathology risk and provide evidence regarding adversities' effects as they begin to accumulate early in life. The changing racial/ethnic demographics of the U.S. population also present a heterogeneity that calls for further examination. This is especially important since some ethnic/racial groups are disproportionately exposed to more adversities than others, especially those living in poor, urban communities. Examining racial and ethnic disparities at an early juncture helps in identifying optimal times of preventive interventions that are tailored to specific underserved population.