Blogging

We next examined the extent to which any associations between ACEs and mental health might be explained by children’s genetic predisposition to mental health problems. After controlling for polygenic risk scores for mental health problems, we found that ACEs remained associated with mental health problems.

Adverse Childhood Experiences Essential Reads

However, polygenic risk scores aren’t the best way to account for genetic factors because they only partially capture a person’s genetic liability to mental health problems. To address this limitation, we used a new statistical method which estimates associations between environmental factors and outcomes under a scenario in which polygenic risk scores could explain greater genetic liability to mental health problems.

Using this method, we found that genetic factors accounted for at least part of the associations between ACEs and mental health. Notably, though, child maltreatment and parental mental health problems were still associated with child mental health problems, independent of genetic factors. This suggests that the environmental experience of maltreatment and living with a parent with mental health problems could influence children’s mental health.

Our study is not without limitations. First, we examined a narrow set of ACEs, but many other adversities affect children, such as bullying or death of a family member. Second, our study was based on participants with European ancestry, so it’s important to investigate whether the findings generalise to populations with different ancestral backgrounds. Finally, although we examined the role of individual risk factors (e.g., genetic predisposition and ACEs), wider structural inequalities (e.g., poverty) can play an important role in influencing both ACEs and mental health.

Overall, though, our findings can help to inform interventions to help prevent children from developing mental health problems. Because maltreatment and parental mental health problems were associated with children’s mental health problems through environmental pathways, preventing those experiences might help to prevent mental health problems in the population. Therefore, investing in parenting support programmes and effective parental mental health care could not only improve family functioning but also prevent later costly mental health problems.

To prevent children exposed to ACEs from developing mental health problems, accessible mental health support is essential. Because children exposed to ACEs were more likely to have genetic predispositions to mental health problems, therapeutic techniques that address heritable psychiatric vulnerabilities (e.g., through skills-building) could reduce their risk of developing mental health problems.