Association between maternal adverse childhood experiences and child's self-rated academic performance: Results from the K-CHILD study

Background: Despite the number of studies showing the link between maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and offspring's neural development and mental health, little is known about the impacts of maternal ACEs on offspring's academic performance in the adolescent period. Objective: To examine the associations between maternal ACEs and self-rated academic performance in adolescent offspring. Participants and Setting: Data from the population-based Kochi Child Health Impact of Living Difficulty (K-CHILD) study, conducted in 2016, was analyzed. Participants included 10,810 children in fifth grade, eighth grade, and eleventh grade living in Kochi prefecture, Japan, and data from maternal respondents were used (n= 7964). Methods: Maternal ACEs, childhood social economic status, current mental health, current socioeconomic status and maternal maltreatment of child were assessed by mothers. Self-rated academic performance was reported by children using a 5-point Likert scale. Ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed, which excluded children with lower self-esteem to avoid measurement bias on self-rated academic performance due to low self-esteem. Results: A higher number of maternal ACEs had a dose-response relationship with lower self-rated academic performance in adolescent offspring after adjusting for confounder (p trend < 0.001). Specifically, adolescents of mothers who experienced parent loss were more likely to report lower self-rated academic performance (OR= 1.31; 95 %CI = 1.16-1.47), whereas adolescents of mothers who experienced maltreatment in childhood showed no association (OR= 1.10, 95 %CI = 0.99-1.22). Conclusions: Maternal ACEs, and especially maternal parent loss, were associated with lower self-rated academic performance in adolescent offspring. Further study is needed to elucidate the possible mechanism underlying this association.