Intergenerational Continuities and Discontinuities in Child Abuse and Neglect

In a paper led by PhD student Samiha Islam, we identified four groups of families. In “cycle maintainer” households, both parents and children had a history of childhood abuse or neglect. In “cycle breaker” households, parents (but not children) had a history of childhood abuse or neglect. In “cycle initiator” households, children (but not parents) had a history of abuse or neglect. In “control” households, neither parents nor children experienced childhood abuse or neglect. Reports of abuse or neglect were collected prospectively, from official records. We found that offspring in cycle breaker families reported significantly less psychopathology than offspring in cycle maintainer families and did not differ from offspring in control families. Our findings highlight the need for maltreatment prevention programs to disrupt intergenerational continuities in abuse and neglect.