Mothers' parental divorce experience in childhood and their children's mental health: Mediating role of maternal education

Abstract

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of mothers have been shown to be associated with children's mental health and behavior problems. It is important to identify effective intervention points to prevent negative consequences among children. This study aimed to investigate whether mothers' education is protective against children's depressive symptoms in families with mothers who experienced parental divorce in childhood.

Methods: Data from a cross-sectional study of 5th and 8th grade children and their caregivers in a prefecture in Japan were used. Final analytic sample consisted of 9666 child-caregiver pairs. Mediation analyses using inverse odds weighting were performed where the exposure was maternal experience of parental divorce in childhood, outcome was child depressive symptoms, and potential mediators were maternal education beyond high school, maternal mental health, and household income.

Results: Maternal experience of parental divorce was associated with an elevated risk of child depressive symptoms (risk ratio: 1.22, 95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.07-1.39). Mediation analyses indicated that the combination of maternal education, maternal depression and household income mediated about half of the total effect. In the model where maternal education was the sole mediator, maternal education mediated nearly half of the total effect (risk ratio: 1.10, 95 % CI: 1.01-1.20).

Limitations: Results should be cautiously interpreted given observational and cross-sectional nature of the data.

Conclusions: Maternal education beyond high school may be protective against negative mental health consequences among children due to mothers' experience of parental divorce. Further studies are needed regarding potential mechanisms and the roles of other potential mediators.

Keywords: Adverse childhood experiences; Child mental health; Intergenerational consequences; Maternal education; Mediation; Parental divorce.