The Intergenerational Reach of Child Maltreatment: Exploring Transmission Mechanisms in Developmental and Socioeconomic Contexts
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Busuito, Alex
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 28, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Erika Lunkenheimer, Major Field Member
Pamela Cole, Major Field Member
Ginger Moore, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Diana Fishbein, Outside Unit & Field Member
Kristin Buss (She/Her), Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- self-regulation
early childhood
infancy
maltreatment
cumulative risk
intergenerational transmission of risk - Abstract:
- The aim of this dissertation was to identify mechanisms of the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment that could inform policy and prevention that are effective, economical, and improve wellbeing across multiple generations. Study 1 used a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample to test a cascade model to determine how mothers’ childhood maltreatment predicted adjustment problems in their children at age three (N = 387 dyads). A structural equation model was estimated to test the indirect effects of mothers’ childhood maltreatment on their children’s 36-month internalizing and externalizing problems via current cumulative risk and parenting. Greater childhood maltreatment predicted higher externalizing problems via the additive effects of higher cumulative risk and less warm/responsive parenting in infancy. Greater childhood maltreatment predicted higher levels of internalizing symptoms via higher cumulative risk. Study 2 examined the effects of mothers’ childhood maltreatment and adulthood cumulative risk on mothers’ parasympathetic (PNS) self-regulation during parenting (N = 107 mothers) using multilevel autoregressive modeling. Controlling for cumulative risk, more childhood maltreatment predicted positive PNS self-regulation, or greater augmentation of PNS tone, rather than the expected negative PNS self-regulation, or withdrawal. Study 3 tested the effects of mothers’ childhood maltreatment on two domains of self-regulation: PNS functioning and inhibitory control (N = 17 mothers). As in Study 2, mothers with greater childhood maltreatment showed positive PNS self-regulation during the lab visit, and also exhibited lower inhibitory control and greater decreases in inhibitory control following an acute stressor. Together, these studies highlight the uniquely toxic effects of childhood maltreatment and emphasize the need for multi-generational policy and prevention that target parents’ self-regulation and addresses systemic socioeconomic disadvantage.