Emotion Regulation Mediates the Associations between Maternal Exposure to Childhood Adverse Experiences (ACEs) and Their Children’s Behaviour Problems

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include exposure to abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. Inquiry over the past few decades has been dedicated to directly linking ACEs with a variety of negative health outcomes, with only more recent work beginning to investigate the intergenerational impacts of parental ACEs. Emerging research suggests that maternal exposure to ACEs is associated with their children’s behavioural problems (Fredland, McFarlane, Symes, & Maddoux, 2017; Pereira, Ludmer, Gonzalez, & Atkinson, 2017); however, the mechanisms that transmit risk are not well understood. Thus, the objective of the present study was to examine maternal emotion regulation capacity as a potential mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of risk.

Methods: Participants included a community sample of 107 mothers and their 3-year-old children. Maternal history of ACEs was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire (CEVQ), and items from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). Maternal self-report of emotion regulation capacity was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Maternal report of child behaviour problems was assessed using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL).

Results: Latent variable mediation models examining the associations between variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Models controlled for maternal characteristics (i.e. age, socioeconomic variables, mood) and child characteristics (i.e. age, gender, IQ). We found that maternal difficulties with emotion regulation significantly mediated the associations between maternal history of ACEs and 1) child internalizing behaviours (β = 0.089, p = 0.036), 2) child externalizing behaviours (β = 0.111, p = 0.039), and 3) total child behaviour problems (β = 0.118, p = 0.034).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that maternal emotion regulation capacity may serve as a mechanism that transmits risk to children’s development following maternal exposure to ACEs. Interventions that seek to improve parental emotion regulation capacity are an important avenue of exploration for families exposed to ACEs.

References

Fredland, N., McFarlane, J., Symes, L., & Maddoux, J. (2017). Exploring the Association of Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences with Maternal Health and Child Behavior Following Intimate Partner Violence. Journal of Women’s Health, jwh.2016.5969. http://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2016.5969

Pereira, J., Ludmer, J. A., Gonzalez, A., & Atkinson, L. (2017). Mothers’ Personal and Interpersonal Function as Potential Mediators Between Maternal Maltreatment History and Child Behavior Problems. Child Maltreatment, 107755951773493. http://doi.org/10.1177/1077559517734937