Recalled parent-child interactions that characterize "risky" early family environments

Adverse childhood experiences have been associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes and occur predominantly within the family. Many widely used assessments of early adversities have significant psychometric limitations and have not been adequately integrated with established theories relating parent-child interactions to similar outcomes. To examine the behaviorally specific ratings of parent-child interactions in early childhood associated with concurrent adverse childhood experiences believed to confer risk for poor health.

In total, 180 young adult undergraduates (52% female, M_age = 21, SD = 6.2 years) enrolled at a large public university in the Southwestern United States. The majority of participants identified as White (73.6%; 10.7% Hispanic, and 7.9% Asian American), were full-time students (81.4%), employed (60.3%), and made less than $15,000 annually (66.0%). Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between affiliation-hostility and autonomy-control in interactions between parents and children, and total early adverse experiences, subtypes of early adversity (e.g., abuse, neglect), and individual adverse experiences, separately.

Greater hostility in interactions with fathers (β = -0.68, p < .001) and mothers (β = -0.48, p < .001), as well as greater autonomy with mothers (β = 0.14, p = .047) were significantly associated with total early adversities. Similarly, greater hostility was consistently associated with subcategories of adverse experiences (abuse, neglect, and household chaos), while associations with autonomy-control differed by subcategory.

Results suggest that hostile and distant interpersonal processes in the early family environment may underlie and contribute to exposure to early adversities and associated outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).