Patterns of Maternal and Paternal Adverse Childhood Experiences on Parenting Satisfaction and Parenting Stress

Recent research has suggested that mothers who experienced a higher number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may be more likely to have higher levels of parenting stress (Lange et al., 2019; Steele et al.,2016). However, few studies have examined fathers' roles in the association. Also, it remains unclear how different combinations of maternal and paternal ACEs may affect parenting satisfaction and parenting stress. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; N = 2,578, 60.4% female), this study identified a five-class model for maternal ACEs: (1) Low ACEs (58.32%), Parental Substance Use and Divorce (20.22%), (3) Violence (10.52%), (4) Abuse (7.65%), and (5) Multiple ACEs (3.29%). For paternal ACEs, five-class models were identified: (1) Low ACEs (48.51%), (2) Parental Substance Use and Divorce (21%), (3) Violence Victimization (12.99%), (4) Household and Environmental Dysfunction (10.68%), and (5) Physical and Emotional Abuse (6.82%). LCA results revealed that parenting satisfaction differed across ACEs classes for both mothers and fathers, even though some ACEs classes might not differ from the Low ACEs class in the post-hoc tests. ACEs class memberships were not significantly associated with parenting stress at the omnibus level, although a pairwise comparison indicated higher stress in the Multiple ACEs class relative to the Low ACEs class. These findings suggest that prevention and intervention programs should target specific groups of parents exposed to different combinations of ACEs and address various aspects of parenting.