Potential Points of Intervention to Minimize the Impact of Parents' Adverse Childhood Experiences on Child Mental Health

ABSTRACT: Objective: Children of parents who experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at elevated risk for mental health (MH) issues. The goal of this study was to explore the relationships between parent ACEs and child MH and to identify potential mediators and points of psychosocial intervention. Methods: Participants were 1307 children aged 5 to 9 years from diverse backgrounds and their primary caregivers. Using cross-sectional questionnaire data, we used structural equation modeling to examine the research questions. Results: Parent ACEs were directly related to child MH issues (β = 0.189, p < 0.001). This relationship was fully mediated by parent MH (β = 0.374, p < 0.001; β = 0.246, p < 0.001) and positive parenting behaviors (β = −0.237, p < 0.001; β = −0.556, p < 0.001). High parent ACEs were negatively associated with parent MH (β = 0.374, p < 0.001), which was then negatively associated with parenting behaviors (β = −0.500, p < 0.001), which was then negatively associated with child MH (β = −0.600, p < 0.001). Parent MH maintained a significant, though attenuated, direct relationship with child MH (β = 0.102, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Parents with high ACEs but who have good mental health and positive parenting behaviors demonstrated no impact of their ACEs on their children's mental health. Providing MH care to parents and parenting programs may be strategies for improving children's MH. Parenting behavior assessment is recommended for clinicians when pediatric patients present with MH concerns.