The Influence of Parental Social-Emotional Competencies on Intergenerational Child Maltreatment: A Scoping Review

Child maltreatment is a major public and global health issue with well-documented intergenerational patterns. Social-emotional development, which is detrimentally impacted by child maltreatment, has been associated with parenting behaviors and implicated as a mechanism of intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment. This scoping review sought to synthesize information on the social-emotional skills that contribute to or protect against intergenerational maltreatment. Following the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis systematic scoping review methodology, 23 studies were identified as having met all inclusion criteria. Eligible studies were empirical, primary, peer-reviewed and published work written in English. Included studies contained a parental history of maltreatment, maltreatment or risk thereof to the child, and at least one independent parental social-emotional factor. Studies were organized, and findings were conceptually mapped according to Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) social-emotional competency domains. Key findings included determining self-management as the most well-studied CASEL competency area, whereas there was a paucity of research on relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Studies focused almost exclusively on assessing risk. The most well-documented risk factors for intergenerational maltreatment included parental emotion dysregulation, low self-control, aggression, and dissociation. Measurement and consideration of the developmental timing of maltreatment was identified as a critical oversight in the literature. Future work should explore developmentally specific models and elucidate more comprehensive profiles of social-emotional risk and resilience as a means of developing more effective prevention strategies.