Long-term effects of grandparental child neglect on adult grandchildren's mental health: A three-generation study

Child neglect is a significant social problem with severe consequences for individuals and society. This study explores how intergenerational transmission of grandparental child neglect affects grandchildren's mental health in adulthood. We utilize a three-generational dataset from the Tromsø Study and estimate a linear probability model to find the distinct roles of both maternal and paternal grandparents. We test the additive risk hypothesis for continuous, intergenerational effects of child neglect in both the maternal and paternal lineages. Furthermore, we use structural equation modeling to test how sequential exposures to neglect across generations ultimately bear on adult mental health outcomes. Our results confirm the additive risk hypothesis but only for maternal grandparents: our findings show that only maternal parents' neglectful parenting is associated with an increased probability of depression in their grandchildren, conditional on whether their parents neglected them. These results contribute to research on intergenerational transmission by the finding that additive risks of child maltreatment flow down generations mainly through maternal lineages. •Revealed maternal grandparents' key role in intergenerational child maltreatment.•Confirms additive risk hypothesis, especially via maternal neglect.•Expands beyond parental effects to underscore grandparental effect on mental health.•Suggests considering grandparental roles in child neglect prevention policies.