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Child-driven genetic factors can contribute to negative parenting and may increase the risk of being maltreated. Experiencing childhood maltreatment may be partly heritable, but results of twin studies are mixed. In the current study, we used a cross-sectional extended family design to estimate genetic and environmental effects on experiencing child maltreatment. The sample consisted of 395 individuals (225 women; M age = 38.85 years, rangeage = 7–88 years) from 63 families with two or three participating generations. Participants were oversampled for experienced maltreatment. Self-reported experienced child maltreatment was measured using a questionnaire assessing physical and emotional abuse, and physical and emotional neglect. All maltreatment phenotypes were partly heritable with percentages for h 2 ranging from 30% (SE = 13%) for neglect to 62% (SE = 19%) for severe physical abuse. Common environmental effects (c 2) explained a statistically significant proportion of variance for all phenotypes except for the experience of severe physical abuse (c 2 = 9%, SE = 13%, p =.26). The genetic correlation between abuse and neglect was ρg =.73 (p =.02). Common environmental variance increased as socioeconomic status (SES) decreased (p =.05), but additive genetic and unique environmental variances were constant across different levels of SES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Experiencing maltreatment during childhood exerts substantial stress on the child and increases the risk for overweight and obesity later in life. The current study tests whether hair cortisol—a measure of chronic stress—and its metabolite cortisone mediate the relation between abuse and neglect on the one hand, and body mass index (BMI) on the other. Method: The sample consisted of 249 participants aged 8 to 87 years (M = 36.13, SD = 19.33). We collected data on child abuse and neglect using questionnaires, measured cortisol and cortisone concentrations in hair, and BMI. In a structural model, the effects of abuse and neglect on hair cortisol, hair cortisone, and BMI were tested, as well as the covariance between hair cortisol and BMI, and hair cortisone and BMI. Results: Within the sample, 23% were overweight but not obese and 14% were obese. Higher levels of experienced abuse were related to higher cortisone concentrations in hair (β = 0.24, p <.001) and higher BMI (β = 0.17, p =.04). Neglect was not related to hair cortisol, hair cortisone, or BMI. Hair cortisol and cortisone did not mediate the association between maltreatment, and BMI. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate the same pattern of results in a subsample of adult participants currently not living with their parents. However, in younger participants who were still living with their parents, the associations between abuse and cortisone (β = 0.14, p =.35) and abuse and BMI (β = 0.02, p =.92) were no longer significant. Conclusion: These findings confirm that experiencing abuse is related to higher BMI but suggest that hair cortisol and cortisone are not the mechanism underlying the association between child maltreatment and BMI. This is the first study to show abuse may be associated to elevated concentrations of hair cortisone—evidence of long-term alterations in chronic stress levels. Future research may benefit from exploring the effects of maltreatment on weight gain in longitudinal designs, including measures of other potential mediators such as eating as a coping mechanism, and more direct indicators of metabolic health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Altered neural reactivity to emotional faces is associated with experienced maltreatment. • Clear differential effects for experienced abuse and neglect are found. • Age-dependent neural sensitivity during face perception is found in maltreated individuals. • Altered neural reactivity to emotional faces is not associated with maltreating behaviour. Abstract Altered processing of emotional faces due to childhood maltreatment has repeatedly been reported, and may be a key process underlying the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment. The current study is the first to examine the role of neural reactivity to emotional and neutral faces in the transmission of maltreatment, using a multi-generational family design including 171 participants of 51 families of two generations with a large age range (8–69 years). The impact of experienced and perpetrated maltreatment (abuse and neglect) on face processing was examined in association with activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and insula in response to angry, fearful, happy and neutral faces. Results showed enhanced bilateral amygdala activation in response to fearful faces in older neglected individuals, whereas reduced amygdala activation was found in response to these faces in younger neglected individuals. Furthermore, while experienced abuse was associated with lower IFG activation in younger individuals, experience of neglect was associated with higher IFG activation in this age group, pointing to potentially differential effects of abuse and neglect and significant age effects. Perpetrated abusive and neglectful behavior were not related to neural activation in any of these regions. Hence, no indications for a role of neural reactivity to emotional faces in the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child maltreatment has been associated with various cumulative risk factors. However, little is known about the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences between parents in perpetrating child maltreatment. To estimate the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to perpetrating maltreatment we used a parent-based extended family design. Child-reported perpetrated maltreatment was available for 556 parents (283 women) from 63 families. To explore reporter effects (i.e., child perspective on maltreatment), child reports were compared to multi-informant reports. Based on polygenic model analyses, most of the variance related to the perpetration of physical abuse and emotional neglect was explained by common environmental factors (physical abuse: c 2 = 59%, SE = 12%, p =.006; emotional neglect: c 2 = 47%, SE = 8%, p <.001) whereas genetic factors did not significantly contribute to the model. For perpetrated emotional abuse, in contrast, genetic factors did significantly contribute to perpetrated emotional abuse (h 2 = 33%, SE = 8%, p <.001), whereas common environment factors did not. Multi-informant reports led to similar estimates of genetic and common environmental effects on all measures except for emotional abuse, where a multi-informant approach yielded higher estimates of the common environmental effects. Overall, estimates of unique environment, including measurement error, were lower using multi-informant reports. In conclusion, our findings suggest that genetic pathways play a significant role in perpetrating emotional abuse, while physical abuse and emotional neglect are transmitted primarily through common environmental factors. These findings imply that interventions may need to target different mechanisms dependings on maltreatment type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rejection by parents is an important aspect of child maltreatment. Altered neural responses to social rejection have been observed in maltreated individuals. The current study is the first to examine the impact of experienced and perpetrated abuse and neglect on neural responses to social exclusion by strangers versus family using a multigenerational family design, including 144 participants. The role of neural reactivity to social exclusion in the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment was also examined. Exclusion by strangers was especially associated with increased activation in the left insula, while exclusion by a family member was mainly associated with increased activation in the ACC. Neural reactivity to social exclusion by strangers in the insula, ACC and dmPFC, was associated with experienced maltreatment but not with perpetrated maltreatment. In abusive parents, altered neural reactivity during exclusion was found in other brain areas, indicating different neural correlates of experienced and perpetrated maltreatment. Hence, no mechanisms could be identified that are involved in the transmission of maltreatment. Hypersensitivity to social rejection by strangers in neglected individuals underscores the importance to distinguish between effects of abuse and neglect and suggests that the impact of experiencing rejection and maltreatment by your own parents extends beyond the family context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, the associations between multiple types of child maltreatment (CM), parent–offspring interactions, and family cohesion were examined in an extended family study. A total of 366 parent–offspring pairs from 137 nuclear families participated. Parents (Mage = 52.8 years, age range: 26.6–88.4 years, 57% female) reported about perpetrated CM and offspring (Mage = 25.7 years, range: 7.5–65.5 years, 58% female) about experienced CM during their childhood. Parent–offspring interactions were observed during a conflict interaction task. Cohesion within the nuclear family was observed during a playful tower building task. Results showed that parents and offspring displayed more aversive behavior in parent–offspring dyads characterized by higher levels of child abuse, but not in dyads characterized by higher levels of child neglect. In addition, less dyadic affective similarity was observed in parent–offspring dyads characterized by higher levels of child neglect, whereas dyadic affective similarity was higher in dyads characterized by higher levels of child abuse. Findings imply that interventions focused on parent–offspring interactions with a somewhat different content for neglectful and abusive families may be efficacious for families in the child welfare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]