Patterns of Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Intergenerational Association of Preschool Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Abstract Children of whose mothers exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at increased risk for developmental problems. We examine the relationship between types and patterns of ACEs among mothers and preschool children’s EBPs in China, and to explore gender differences associated with these problems. 9647 preschool children from 36 kindergartens in 3 cities of Anhui province were included in this study. Questionnaires survey were used to report the details of maternal ACEs and children’s EBPs. Latent class analysis (LCA) revealed four different classes of maternal ACEs: ‘high abuse and neglect’(12.0%), ‘high household dysfunction’(2.2%), ‘moderate ACEs’(40.0%), and ‘low ACEs’(45.8%). After adjusting for covariates, binary logistic analyses indicated that children of mothers in the ‘high abuse and neglect’, ‘moderate ACEs’, and ‘high household dysfunction’ classes were more likely to report EBPs than those in the ‘low ACEs’ class (OR = 2.18–5.97, P＜0.05). No gender differences were found in the independent impacts of types and patterns of maternal ACEs on children’s EBPs, except for the ‘moderate ACEs’ class and maternal childhood physical abuse and physical neglect, which had a stronger impact on EBPs in boys than girls (OR = 1.43–1.83, P＜0.05). This study supports and refines existing research that confirms an intergenerational association between types and patterns of maternal ACEs and preschool children’s EBPs in a large Chinese sample, so as to provide references for the early prevention and control of preschool children’s EBPs.