Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Decades of research have shown that exposure to adversity and abuse leads to poor health and mental health. However, less is known about how adversity at different stages of the life course in mothers is transmitted to their children. For example, little is known about whether adversity experiences in childhood versus adulthood is associated with transmission of adversity to child development. The current study used a large cohort of over 3,000 women to identify whether different types of adversity at different time points would influence how well their child would develop. Pregnant women completed questionnaires about abuse experienced in childhood, adulthood, and the postpartum period. They also filled out questionnaires on postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, quality of life, and rating of their child's development. We found that there were three different groups of women: women who had experience low levels of adversity/abuse, women who had experienced abuse in childhood but not adulthood, and women who had experienced abuse in adulthood but not childhood. We found that women who had experienced abuse in childhood and adulthood had the poorest mental health outcomes and had children with the poorest development outcomes. Our findings indicate that mothers who have been exposed to abuse at different times across the lifespan are at risk of poor outcomes and so are their children. Mothers who have experienced adversity and abuse should be identified in the prenatal period so that adequate supports can be provided to help mitigate poor outcomes.