Peer-reviewed article
Childhood Abuse and Caregiving for Perpetrating Parents: Impacts on Adult Child Well-Being
Goldberg J, Kong J, Moorman S ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how childhood abuse by parents affects adult children who later become caregivers for those same parents. Using data from over 1,200 family caregivers in Wisconsin, researchers found that adults abused by their mothers experienced reduced emotional closeness with them, which was linked to higher depression. The negative effects of past abuse on mental health were somewhat reduced when adult children had stronger psychological resources like self-acceptance and a sense of mastery.
Key points
- Maternal childhood abuse was associated with reduced emotional closeness between adult child caregivers and their mothers (b = -0.24, p < .001)
- Reduced emotional closeness was linked to increased depressive symptoms in adult child caregivers (b = 0.02, p < .05)
- Psychological resources (self-acceptance and mastery) moderated the effect of maternal childhood abuse on depressive symptoms (b = -0.08, p < .05)
- Study included 969 caregivers of mothers and 280 caregivers of fathers from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
- Practitioners are encouraged to use trauma-informed approaches when working with abuse survivors who are caregiving for their abuser
Limitations
The study focuses on a specific U.S. sample and may not generalise to other cultural or family contexts. The document does not clearly explain the mechanisms of how psychological resources protect mental health or provide information about the severity or timing of childhood abuse experiences.
Abstract
Abstract Combining the stress process model of caregiving and life course perspective, this study examined the long-term influences of childhood abuse on perpetrating parent-adult child relationships and adult child well-being in the context of caregiving. Using a sample of family caregivers from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (969 caregivers of mothers; 280 caregivers of fathers), we investigated whether contact frequency and emotional closeness with an abusive parent mediate the longitudinal effects of parental childhood abuse on adult child caregivers’ depressive symptoms and the moderating effects of self-acceptance and mastery on this mediational association. Key findings indicate that maternal childhood abuse may negatively affect emotional closeness between an adult child caregiver and perpetrating mother (b = -0.24, p < .001). This could lead the adult child caregiver to experience increased depressive symptoms (b = 0.02, p < .05). Although the mediation paths for the effect of maternal childhood abuse on depressive symptoms via emotional closeness with mothers did not differ by caregivers’ level of psychological resources, we found that psychological resources significantly moderated the association between maternal childhood abuse and depressive symptoms (b = -0.08, p < .05). Further research may explore this phenomenon in light of the heterogeneity of contemporary families. Practitioners working with adults with a history of parental childhood abuse who are caregiving for their perpetrator are encouraged to employ a trauma-informed approach to maximize the caregivers’ health and well-being.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Trauma-informed caregiving approach (recommended but not evaluated in this study)
- Population
- 969 adult children caregiving for mothers and 280 caregiving for fathers from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
Key finding
Maternal childhood abuse reduced emotional closeness with mothers (b = -0.24, p < .001)