Effects of childhood maltreatment on mothers’ empathy and parenting styles in intergenerational transmission

Understanding the intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment (CM) is crucial to prevent its perpetuation to future generations. The literature has revealed parental empathy to be a pivotal factor in this process. Parental empathy is the ability to comprehend and empathetically respond to the emotions and mental states of children; therefore, its impairment may result in challenges in parenting, ultimately contributing to CM. In this study, we explored the factors that undermine empathy and how they alter parenting practices, to uncover the process of intergenerational transmission of CM. To investigate actual instances of CM, a comparative study was conducted between 13 mothers with a history of social interventions owing to CM and 42 mothers in the control group. Path analysis was performed to examine the trajectory from adverse childhood experiences to maltreatment and explore their correlations with variables including affective and cognitive empathy, depressive symptoms, and parenting styles. The results showed that experiences of CM specifically enhanced empathy in the emotional domain in the maltreatment group. Furthermore, heightened empathy in the maltreatment group influenced parenting style mediated by depressive symptoms. These results provide important insights into the intergenerational transmission process in the context of parental empathy.