An unbreakable bond? Maternal adverse childhood experiences and mothers’ relationships with adult children

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)-the constellation of experiences of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction in childhood-affect the subsequent formation and maintenance of social relationships. Yet to date, there is limited knowledge on the potential consequences of maternal ACEs for the mother-adult child tie, one of the most important relationships across the life course. Insights from a life course perspective and research on the deleterious effects of ACEs suggest that mothers' experiences of ACEs in childhood are so powerful that they may shape mother-adult child relationship quality decades later. To test this possibility, we draw on nationally representative, longitudinal cohort data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Child and Young Adult Supplement to examine associations between maternal ACEs and mother-adult child estrangement, contact, and closeness. Multi-level logistic and ordinal logistic regression models show that greater maternal ACEs exposure is associated with greater odds of estrangement from, less frequent contact with, and lower levels of closeness to the mother as reported by the adult child. Our findings highlight and extend research on intergenerational relationships by demonstrating that a mother's ACEs exposure may be a fundamental determinant of her relationships with her adult children, documenting lengthier intergenerational consequences of ACEs than uncovered by prior research.