Understanding how child maltreatment is passed down from one generation to the next is crucial for the development of intervention and prevention strategies that may break the cycle of child maltreatment. Changes in emotion recognition due to childhood maltreatment have repeatedly been found, and may underly the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment. In this study we, therefore, examined whether the ability to recognize emotions plays a role in the intergenerational transmission of child abuse and neglect. A total of 250 parents (104 males, 146 females) were included that participated in a three-generation family study. Participants completed an emotion recognition task in which they were presented with series of photographs that depicted the unfolding of facial expressions from neutrality to the peak emotions anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. Multi-informant measures were used to examine experienced and perpetrated child maltreatment. A history of abuse, but not neglect, predicted a shorter reaction time to identify fear and anger. In addition, parents who showed higher levels of neglectful behavior made more errors in identifying fear, whereas parents who showed higher levels of abusive behavior made more errors in identifying anger. Emotion recognition did not mediate the association between experienced and perpetrated child maltreatment. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between abuse and neglect when investigating the precursors and sequalae of child maltreatment. In addition, the effectiveness of interventions that aim to break the cycle of abuse and neglect could be improved by better addressing the specific problems with emotion processing of abusive and neglectful parents.

中文翻译：

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情绪识别在儿童虐待代际传播中的作用：一项多代家庭研究

了解虐待儿童如何代代相传对于制定可能打破虐待儿童循环的干预和预防策略至关重要。儿童虐待导致的情绪认知变化已被多次发现，并且可能是儿童虐待代际传播的基础。因此，在这项研究中，我们研究了识别情绪的能力是否在儿童虐待和忽视的代际传播中发挥作用。共有 250 名父母（104 名男性，146 名女性）参与了三代家庭研究。参与者完成了一项情绪识别任务，其中向他们展示了一系列照片，这些照片描绘了从中性到愤怒、恐惧、幸福和悲伤的高峰情绪的面部表情。采用多信息测量方法来检查虐待儿童的经历和实施情况。虐待史（而非忽视史）预示着识别恐惧和愤怒的反应时间会更短。此外，表现出较高程度的忽视行为的父母在识别恐惧时会犯更多错误，而表现出较高程度的虐待行为的父母在识别愤怒时会犯更多错误。情绪识别并不能调节经历过的儿童虐待和正在实施的儿童虐待之间的关联。研究结果强调了在调查虐待儿童的前兆和后遗症时区分虐待和忽视的重要性。此外，通过更好地解决虐待和忽视父母情绪处理的具体问题，可以提高旨在打破虐待和忽视循环的干预措施的有效性。