Children at increased risk of attention deficit disorder and obesity
Women who experienced parental abuse as children were at higher risk of having children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and asthma than women without childhood trauma. In addition, if the daughters of such women were found to have an increased risk of developing obesity. Article published In the magazine The Lancet Public Health.
Child abuse refers to any behavior by a parent that results in physical or emotional harm. Types of abuse include physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as neglect – the neglect of the child’s basic needs. In Western countries, about a third of all adults encountered abused in childhood, and in Russia, according to Rosstat for 2012, out of 600,000 offenses committed against minors, two-thirds are parental violence.
In addition to the ethical side of the problem, it has quite tangible social consequences. Children who were abused in childhood suffer from mental disorders, drug addiction, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. In addition, some scholars say that child abuse reflected on the health of their offspring.
Claudia Buss of the Free University of Berlin led a cohort retrospective study in which scientists looked for patterns between childhood abuse and the birth of children with various disabilities later. Researchers obtained data on childhood maltreatment using two questionnaires that women completed as part of a research study. programs United States on the influence of external factors on the development of children. The questionnaires covered all types of child abuse. A total of 3954 mother-child pairs from 1999 to 2016 were included in the analysis.
Nearly half of the women in the study (1,742 women, 44 percent) reported experiencing childhood abuse. When comparing the two groups, it was found that women who were abused as children were more likely to be black, give birth at a younger age, have lower levels of education and annual income compared to women who were not abused as children. Scientists did not find a difference in the distribution of sexes of born children and the age of the biological father of the child between groups.
The primary analysis showed that mothers who were abused as children were more likely to have children with problems interiorizations (p < 0.0001), ASD (p = 0.01), ADHD (p < 0.0001) and asthma (p < 0.0001). When taking into account additional parameters, scientists found that girls whose mothers were abused in childhood also had a higher risk of childhood obesity (p = 0.005). At the same time, the scientists did not find any relationship between violence experienced in childhood and the development of allergies in children. Different statistical models with corrections for different factors demonstrated similar results with different strength of association that remained statistically significant.
This study shows that child maltreatment, in particular of girls, negatively impacts not only themselves as adults, but also, presumably, the next generation. So far, scientists cannot name the specific reasons for this pattern. It may have a biological basis, but it is also important to take into account the social factor: the child may grow up in close proximity to the grandparents – the mother’s parents, who were cruel to her in childhood. Perhaps, having experienced childhood abuse, a woman may use a similar pattern of behavior towards her children.
The origins of cruelty and violence in man are looking for the entire history of mankind. However, scientists sometimes discover unexpected factors that provoke them. We recently reported that high and low temperatures are fueling the rise of hate speech on Twitter.