Intergenerational transmission of child abuse risk: Cognitive mediators in a multigenerational study

Although the intergenerational transmission of aggressive parenting behaviors is well documented, few studies utilize multigenerational, multi-informant longitudinal designs to clarify the mechanisms underlying continuity in child abuse risk.

This study examined the underlying cognitive process accounting for the intergenerational transmission of child abuse risk, testing whether prenatal parenting attitudes approving aggressive parenting predicted parental child negative intent attributions sequentially mediating associations between first (G1) and second (G2) generation child abuse risk.

G2 parents were drawn from a longitudinal study of first-time mothers and their male partners recruited during the third trimester of pregnancy. Multigenerational data were available for 120 G1 mothers of G2 parents.

A longitudinal, multi-informant, sequential mediation model was estimated. Child abuse risk variables were estimated using multiple measures for G1 and G2 parents. G1 abuse risk was modeled predicting G2 parents' prenatal approval of parent-child aggression (PCA) as a mediator predicting negative child intent attributions at six months postpartum, which then predicted G2's child abuse risk.

G1 child abuse risk predicted greater G2 prenatal approval of PCA use. Prenatal PCA approval mediated the association between G1 and G2 child abuse risk, both directly and sequentially through increased negative child intent attributions at six months postpartum.

Prenatal approval of PCA represents a key cognitive mechanism linking child abuse risk across generations, highlighting pregnancy as a critical period for prevention-focused intervention.