Childhood trauma, generational trauma and ancestral trauma have all become buzzy terms in pop psychology on social media.
These topics aren’t just becoming more prevalent in the cultural zeitgeist as more researchers are seeking scientific answers to explain the connection between childhood trauma and generational or ancestral trauma.
A barrage of new studies has shown that childhood trauma and childhood neglect is closely associated with future outcomes as an adult, especially in areas such as mental health, physical stamina, risk for certain diseases, level of education, income levels and influence on executive function, which is sometimes known as “adulting.”
New studies study show that childhood trauma doesn’t only effect individuals.
Childhood trauma can be genetically passed down, affecting longterm mental and physical health outcomes for future generations.
It’s already been long established that early life experiences can have a direct effect on brain development and neurobiological health. New research shows that those effects can be passed down to subsequent generations, finding that the infant children of mothers who experienced childhood emotional neglect displayed altered brain circuitry involved in fear responses, stress and anxiety.
One study that established generational trauma appears in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
“These results show that our brain development is not only shaped by what happens in our own life, but is also impacted by things that happened to our parents before we were even conceived,” said the author of the study, Cassandra Hendrix, PhD, a leader in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
Dr. Hendrix and her colleagues studied 48 Black mother-infant pairs beginning in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Mothers were given a questionnaire to assess childhood trauma, including experiences of early abuse or neglect. The mothers were also evaluated for current life stressors, prenatal stress levels and for anxiety and depression.
One month after birth, infants born to the mothers in the study had brain scans, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, a non-invasive technology that could be used while the babies slept naturally. This non-invasive technology was used during sleep time so the testing would not influence or interfere with the babies’ awareness or mental state.
The researchers focused on brain connections between the amygdala, which is central to processing fearful emotions and two other regions of the brain: the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex.
Both areas play a central role in regulating emotions. Babies whose mothers experienced childhood emotional neglect had stronger functionally activated connections between the amygdala and the cortical regions.
“These remarkable results leverage our ability to image the brain and its functioning very early in life,” said Cameron Carter, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
After controlling the study to account for the mothers’ current stress levels, researchers found that the more emotional neglect a mother experienced during her own childhood, the more strongly her baby’s amygdala was connected to the frontal cortical regions.
The findings suggest that childhood emotional neglect has intergenerational effects on brain structure and function.
The study also found that physical abusive of the mother was not connected with stronger connectivity than the emotional neglect.
The study showed a significant generational impact of childhood neglect
The findings suggest that childhood emotional neglect has intergenerational effects on brain structure and function.
“The neural signature we observed in the 1-month-old infants of emotionally neglected mothers may be a mechanism that leads to increased risk for anxiety, or it could be a compensatory mechanism that promotes resilience in case the infant has less supportive caregivers. In either case, emotional neglect from a mother’s own childhood seems to leave behind a neural signature in her baby that may predispose the infant to more readily detect threat in the environment almost from birth. Our findings highlight the importance of emotional support early in life, even for subsequent generations” said Dr. Hendrix.
“The findings add to evidence of the intergenerational consequences of early life adversity, such as maternal neglect,” added Dr. Carter, a co-author of the study.
“Future studies that follow children longitudinally will help us understand the functional significance of these changes in brain function in terms of the emotional and social development of children of mothers who experienced early neglect.”
Generational trauma or ancestral trauma is not only a theory, it’s now directly connected to scientific research.
Researchers say more studies are needed to show if and how generational trauma or ancestral trauma is passed down outside of childhood and/or childhood neglect.
