Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid: prenatal stress predicts greater vulnerability to the psychological impacts of future stress exposure during late adolescence and early adulthood in Soweto, South Africa
Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid: prenatal stress predicts greater vulnerability to the psychological impacts of future stress exposure during late adolescence and early adulthood in Soweto, South Africa
Background: South Africa's rates of psychiatric morbidity are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and are foregrounded by the country's long history of political violence during apartheid. Growing evidence suggests that in utero stress exposure is a potent developmental risk factor for future mental illness risk, yet the extent to which the psychiatric effects of prenatal stress impact the next generation are unknown. We evaluate the intergenerational effects of prenatal stress experienced during apartheid on psychiatric morbidity among children at ages 17–18 and also assess the moderating effects of maternal age, social support, and past household adversity.
Methods: participants come from Birth-to-Twenty, a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa's largest peri-urban township which was the epicentre of violent repression and resistance during the final years of the apartheid regime. Pregnant women were prospectively enrolled in 1990 and completed questionnaires assessing social experiences, and their children's psychiatric morbidity were assessed at ages 17–18.
Results: full data were available from 304 mother–child pairs in 2007–8. Maternal prenatal stress in 1990 was not directly associated greater psychiatric morbidity during at ages 17–18. Maternal age and past household adversity moderated the intergenerational mental health effects of prenatal stress such that children born to younger mothers and late adolescent/young adult children experiencing greater household adversity exhibited worse psychiatric morbidity at ages 17–18. Social support did not buffer against the long-term psychiatric impacts of prenatal stress.
Conclusions: greater prenatal stress from apartheid predicted adverse psychiatric outcomes among children born to younger mothers and adolescents/young adults who experienced greater concurrent stress. Our findings suggest that prenatal stress may affect adolescent mental health, have stress-sensitising effects, and represent possible intergenerational effects of trauma experienced under apartheid in this sample
prenatal stress, psychiatric morbidity, stress sensitization, late adolescence, young adulthood, south africa
110-124
Kim, Andrew Wooyoung
baef02e6-b25d-42a5-89e6-1907d35aad0a
Mohamed, Rihlat Said
7efbc4a0-5318-48b1-81b6-2c7b12b8c446
Norris, Shane A.
1d346f1b-6d5f-4bca-ac87-7589851b75a4
Richter, Linda M.
2a818b1f-3798-4e6e-841d-c19bbb74bac2
Kuzawa, Christopher W.
e125754e-ac75-474b-b028-69d010a74d22
19 July 2022
Kim, Andrew Wooyoung
baef02e6-b25d-42a5-89e6-1907d35aad0a
Mohamed, Rihlat Said
7efbc4a0-5318-48b1-81b6-2c7b12b8c446
Norris, Shane A.
1d346f1b-6d5f-4bca-ac87-7589851b75a4
Richter, Linda M.
2a818b1f-3798-4e6e-841d-c19bbb74bac2
Kuzawa, Christopher W.
e125754e-ac75-474b-b028-69d010a74d22
Kim, Andrew Wooyoung, Mohamed, Rihlat Said, Norris, Shane A., Richter, Linda M. and Kuzawa, Christopher W.
(2022)
Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid: prenatal stress predicts greater vulnerability to the psychological impacts of future stress exposure during late adolescence and early adulthood in Soweto, South Africa.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 64 (1), .
(doi:10.1111/jcpp.13672).
Abstract
Background: South Africa's rates of psychiatric morbidity are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and are foregrounded by the country's long history of political violence during apartheid. Growing evidence suggests that in utero stress exposure is a potent developmental risk factor for future mental illness risk, yet the extent to which the psychiatric effects of prenatal stress impact the next generation are unknown. We evaluate the intergenerational effects of prenatal stress experienced during apartheid on psychiatric morbidity among children at ages 17–18 and also assess the moderating effects of maternal age, social support, and past household adversity.
Methods: participants come from Birth-to-Twenty, a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa's largest peri-urban township which was the epicentre of violent repression and resistance during the final years of the apartheid regime. Pregnant women were prospectively enrolled in 1990 and completed questionnaires assessing social experiences, and their children's psychiatric morbidity were assessed at ages 17–18.
Results: full data were available from 304 mother–child pairs in 2007–8. Maternal prenatal stress in 1990 was not directly associated greater psychiatric morbidity during at ages 17–18. Maternal age and past household adversity moderated the intergenerational mental health effects of prenatal stress such that children born to younger mothers and late adolescent/young adult children experiencing greater household adversity exhibited worse psychiatric morbidity at ages 17–18. Social support did not buffer against the long-term psychiatric impacts of prenatal stress.
Conclusions: greater prenatal stress from apartheid predicted adverse psychiatric outcomes among children born to younger mothers and adolescents/young adults who experienced greater concurrent stress. Our findings suggest that prenatal stress may affect adolescent mental health, have stress-sensitising effects, and represent possible intergenerational effects of trauma experienced under apartheid in this sample
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Child Psychology Psychiatry - 2022 - Kim - Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid
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Accepted/In Press date: 10 May 2022
Published date: 19 July 2022
Keywords:
prenatal stress, psychiatric morbidity, stress sensitization, late adolescence, young adulthood, south africa
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Local EPrints ID: 496959
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/496959
ISSN: 1469-7610
PURE UUID: c4674535-37b8-410f-ba66-d8ff57714168
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Date deposited: 08 Jan 2025 15:34
Last modified: 10 Jan 2025 03:05
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Author:
Andrew Wooyoung Kim
Author:
Rihlat Said Mohamed
Author:
Linda M. Richter
Author:
Christopher W. Kuzawa
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