Despite previous work demonstrating that an accumulation of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with negative health outcomes across generations, few studies have investigated protective factors beyond the parent–child dyad in the intergenerational transmission of adversity. The current study extends previous findings by examining maternal family social support as a culturally relevant buffer in the association between mothers’ ACEs and her children’s behavior problems in early childhood. Participants included 121 African American mothers and their preschool-aged children experiencing high sociodemographic risk. Mothers completed questionnaires on ACEs, perceived family social support, children’s violence exposure and behavior problems as well as relevant demographics. Maternal family social support moderated the relation between maternal ACEs and children’s externalizing behaviors (b = −.14, p < .01), such that children of mothers who reported high ACEs and also moderate to high family social support did not show elevated externalizing behaviors; this pattern was not observed for internalizing behaviors (b = −.06, p = .06). Additionally, the intergenerational buffering effects of family social support were observed above and beyond mothers’ psychopathology and children’s exposure to violence. These results have implications for culturally relevant prevention and intervention efforts supporting African American mothers with young children that reflect resiliency in the face of disparities across generations.

Empirical research examining the Spillover Hypothesis has largely substantiated that interparental conflict comprised of hostility and anger has negative implications for parenting behaviors and cascading effects on children's development. However, less is known about how constructive forms of interparental conflict may operate in spillover processes. Toward this, the present study examined how interparental supportive and problem-solving approaches to conflict were associated with parental guided learning in the caregiving context and by extension young children's executive functioning. Participants included 231 families (mothers, fathers, and their child). Assessments of constructive interparental conflict were derived from both observational tasks and multi-informant report. Parental supportive problem solving was assessed observationally during a goal-directed parent-child interaction. Children's inhibitory control, working memory, and visual-spatial reasoning were assessed using validated tasks. Analyses were conducted in a structural equation modeling framework, and significance of indirect paths were tested using RMediation. Results showed constructive interparental conflict was associated with increases in maternal supportive problem solving, which in turn predicted increases in children's working memory. Furthermore, constructive interparental conflict was indirectly associated with increases in children's inhibitory control via paternal supportive problem solving. These findings were significant over two waves of data collection after controlling for child sex, maternal and paternal age, and maternal and paternal education. Findings underscore the potential utility of family resilience theory and domain approaches to parenting for increasing specificity and precision in identifying spillover processes.

Co-occurring maternal depression and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are associated with the development of psychopathology in children, yet little is known about risk mechanisms. In a sample of 122 racially diverse and economically disadvantaged families, we prospectively investigated (a) to what extent child socioemotional problems were related to maternal depression-only, ASPD-only, or the co-occurrence of both and (b) specificity in parenting-related mechanisms linking single-type or comorbid maternal psychopathology to child outcomes at age 3. Compared to mothers without either ASPD or depression, exposure to maternal depression-only and comorbid depression/ASPD predicted child problems as a function of greater parenting stress and lower maternal sensitivity. Mothers with comorbid depression/ASPD uniquely exhibited more negative parenting and had children with more socioemotional problems than mothers with depression-only. Compared to mothers with neither ASPD nor depression, mothers with depression-only uniquely impacted child difficulties via lower maternal efficacy. Study findings suggest areas of parenting intervention.