Effects of Parental Experiences of Childhood Abuse and Parenting Stress on Offspring Abuse and Depression: The Buffering Role of Children’s Social Support

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze effects of parental experiences of childhood abuse and parental stress on offspring abuse and depression, as well as to examine the role of social support in relation to the offspring abuse and child’s depression. The data used in this study was selected from 2018 Childhood Life Experiences Survey, with a sample of 1,515 parent-child dyads. Descriptive, structural equation model and multi-group structural equation model analyses were conducted to evaluate research questions. The results showed that parental experiences of childhood abuse had statistically significant direct effects on parental stress and offspring abuse, parental stress itself had statistically significant direct effects to offspring abuse and depression, and finally child’s current experience of abuse had statistically significant direct effect on their depression. The direct effects of parental experiences of childhood abuse and parental stress on offspring abuse and child’s depression were moderated by the offspring’s perception of social support. For the offspring with the low- and the medium-level of social support, the child abuse had a significant direct effect on depression, whereas for those with the high-level of social support it had no significant effect on the depression. Moreover, for children with low-level of social support, the effects of parental stress on offspring abuse and child’s depression were much stronger than those with medium- or high-level of social support. The findings suggest that the child abuse can transmit through generations and have an adverse influence on depression in offspring in Korea, as has been confirmed in many other countries, which informs the validity of the social learning theory and family systems theory too. There is a need for family-centered and social interventions to break the cycle of abuse and to reduce depression in abused children.