ReviewJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2019
Research Review: Intergenerational transmission of disadvantage: epigenetics and parents' childhoods as the first exposure.
Review in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 130 citations in OpenAlex.
- Parent-child communication and third generation's difficulties: Roles of parental depression and self-efficacy.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2026Article
- Intergenerational continuity of parent-child separation: implications for child allergies and total IgE in China.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Effects of intergenerational parent-child separation on early eruption of permanent molar and telomere length: a cross-sectional study among Chinese children aged 3-6 years.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- From exposure to embedding: how interconnected social determinants drive health inequalities-a complex adaptive system dynamics approach.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Mother infant cortisol levels and maternal childhood adversity.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Intergenerational Socioeconomic Mobility and Cardiovascular Health Among Hispanic/Latino Youth and Caregivers Living in the United States.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Maternal History of Child Maltreatment Predicts Dysregulated Offspring Stress Response System Functioning.Child maltreatment · 2025Article
- Associations among prenatal stress, socioeconomic status, and infant epigenetic aging.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- The Intergenerational Impact of Maternal Childhood Adversity on Child Behavior and Neurodevelopment: The Healthy MiNDS Protocol.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2025Article
- Is neglect the first form of threat?Attachment & human development · 2025Review
- Exposure to childhood maltreatment is associated with specific epigenetic patterns in sperm.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- The Role of Socioeconomic Determinants in Children's Health.Portuguese journal of public health · 2025Article
- Emotional Availability as a Moderator of Stress for Young Children and Parents in Two Diverse Early Head Start Samples.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2025Article
- Perspective to Practice: Theoretical Frameworks Explaining Intergenerational Trauma, Violence, and Maltreatment and Implications for the Therapeutic Response.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Review
- The role of allostatic load in adverse pregnancy outcomes: a multisystem, developmental perspective.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Review
- Intimate partner violence and stress-related disorders: from epigenomics to resilience.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Review
- Article
- Running in the FAMILY: understanding and predicting the intergenerational transmission of mental illness.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- A Shift in Approach to Addressing Public Health Inequities and the Effect of Societal Structural and Systemic Drivers on Social Determinants of Health.Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974) · 2024Article
- Intergenerational transmission of health inequalities: towards a life course approach to socioeconomic inequalities in health - a review.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2024Review
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFor decades, economists and sociologists have documented intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic disadvantage, demonstrating that economic, political, and social factors contribute to 'inherited hardship'. Drawing on biological factors, the developmental origins of adult health and disease model posits that fetal exposure to maternal prenatal distress associated with socioeconomic disadvantage compromises offspring's neurodevelopment, affecting short- and long-term physical and mental health, and thereby psychosocial standing and resources. Increasing evidence suggests that mother-to-child influence occurs prenatally, in part via maternal and offspring atypical HPA axis regulation, with negative effects on the maturation of prefrontal and subcortical neural circuits in the offspring. However, even this in utero timeframe may be insufficient to understand biological aspects of the transmission of factors contributing to disadvantage across generations.
methodsWe review animal studies and emerging human research indicating that parents' childhood experiences may transfer epigenetic marks that could impact the development of their offspring independently of and in interaction with their offspring's perinatal and early childhood direct exposures to stress stemming from socioeconomic disadvantage and adversity.
resultsAnimal models point to epigenetic mechanisms by which traits that could contribute to disadvantage may be transmitted across generations. However, epigenetic pathways of parental childhood experiences influencing child outcomes in the next generation are only beginning to be studied in humans. With a focus on translational research, we point to design features and methodological considerations for human cohort studies to be able to test the intergenerational transmission hypothesis, and we illustrate this with existing longitudinal studies.
conclusionsEpigenetic intergenerational transmission, if at play in human populations, could have policy implications in terms of reducing the continuation of disadvantage across generations. Further research is needed to address this gap in the understanding of the perpetuation of compromised lives across generations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.