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Psychiatric disorders following the clustering of family disadvantages in previous generations: A multigenerational cohort study
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Public Health Sciences, Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0286-4198
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Public Health Sciences, Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2580-7903
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7576-9410
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Public Health Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8707-180x
Number of Authors: 42025 (English)In: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, ISSN 0933-7954, E-ISSN 1433-9285Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose There is a lack of multigenerational research on the extent to which mental health is informed by transmission of multiple disadvantages across previous generations. This study aims to investigate how family socioeconomic and psychosocial disadvantages cluster and transition over grandparental and parental generations, and how this might be associated with grandchild psychiatric disorders.

Methods We utilized a cohort study with data following three generations from the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study, including 11,299 individuals born in 1953 (parental generation), their 22,598 parents (grandparental generation), and 24,707 adult children (grandchild generation). Family disadvantages as exposures were measured across two periods– grandparental adulthood (parental childhood) and parental adulthood (grandchild childhood), and included socioeconomic (i.e., low income, non-employment, overcrowding, and single parenthood) and psychosocial aspects (i.e., single parenthood, teenage motherhood, psychiatric disorders, and criminality of father). Psychiatric disorders in the adult grandchildren as outcome were defined by hospitalizations with a main or contributing diagnosis reflecting mental and behavioral disorders from age 18 until 2019.

Results Multiple disadvantages within the grandparental and parental generations, respectively, predicted higher probabilities of grandchild psychiatric disorders. Multigenerational transmission is evident in that grandchildren with combinations of grandparental socioeconomic disadvantages and parental psychosocial disadvantages had comparably high probabilities of psychiatric disorders. Importantly, improved socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances across previous generations predicted comparably low probabilities of grandchild psychiatric disorders.

Conclusion Mental health of future generations is informed by the transmission of multiple disadvantages across previous generations, and the transition from grandparental socioeconomic disadvantages into parental psychosocial disadvantages is particularly important.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
Keywords [en]
Socioeconomic factors, Psychosocial factors, Mental health, Multigenerational transmission, Sweden
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Research subject
Public Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-242168DOI: 10.1007/s00127-025-02918-zISI: 001478394000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105003846122OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-242168DiVA, id: diva2:1952191
Available from: 2025-04-14 Created: 2025-04-14 Last updated: 2025-05-21
In thesis
1. Misfortune (dis)continues across generations: Multigenerational studies linking socioeconomic and psychosocial disadvantages to psychiatric disorders
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Misfortune (dis)continues across generations: Multigenerational studies linking socioeconomic and psychosocial disadvantages to psychiatric disorders
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Mental health problems contribute substantially to the disease burden in Sweden and worldwide. Such problems are not evenly distributed in the population and are, to a large extent, socially determined. The overall aim of the current thesis is to investigate the multigenerational associations and mechanisms between socioeconomic and psychosocial disadvantages and mental health problems, as well as potential gender differences. Drawing on data from the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study that encompasses local and national survey- and register-based data across three generations, and through employing structural equation modeling techniques, a series of four empirical studies was conducted. Study I demonstrated multigenerational transmission of low income through the patriline (from paternal grandfathers to fathers) to grandchildren, and multigenerational transmission of psychiatric disorders through both the patriline and matriline (from maternal grandmothers to mothers) to grandsons. The patriline-grandson transmission of psychiatric disorders partially operated via low income of the fathers. Additionally, grandparents’ psychiatric disorders influenced their children’s and grandchildren’s income. Study II provided further insights into multigenerational patterns of disadvantages by showing that combinations of grandparental socioeconomic and parental psychosocial disadvantages elevated the risks of grandchild psychiatric disorders. Importantly, improved socioeconomic and psychosocial circumstances across previous generations predicted lower probabilities of psychiatric disorders among grandchildren. Study III established the mediating role of psychosocial disadvantages in the parental generation, particularly among mothers, in the association between grandparental socioeconomic disadvantages and grandchild psychiatric disorders. Study IV delved deeper into the mechanisms underlying this multigenerational mediation pattern by identifying parental childhood experiences (i.e., family relationship quality, peer relationships, and educational performance) as important determinants of parental adulthood psychosocial disadvantages and grandchild psychiatric disorders. Parental childhood peer relationships and educational performance mattered more among fathers, whereas family relationship quality played a more important role among mothers. These empirical studies extend our understanding of the multigenerational transmission patterns of disadvantages, and how multiple factors in the parental generation act as mechanisms linking grandparental socioeconomic disadvantages to grandchild mental health problems. Accordingly, public health efforts to improve mental health of future generations could benefit from a multigenerational perspective.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, 2025. p. 72
Series
Stockholm Studies in Public Health Sciences, ISSN 2003-0061 ; 14
Keywords
Mental health problems, Psychiatric disorders, Socioeconomic disadvantages, Psychosocial disadvantages, Resilience, Vulnerability, Cumulative inequality, Multigenerational associations, Multigenerational mechanisms, Life course perspective, Longitudinal studies, Sweden
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Research subject
Public Health Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-242170 (URN)978-91-8107-250-1 (ISBN)978-91-8107-251-8 (ISBN)
Public defence
2025-06-05, Auditorium 4, House 2, Floor 2, Albanovägen 18, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2025-05-13 Created: 2025-04-14 Last updated: 2025-05-08Bibliographically approved

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Li, BaojingLiu, CanBrännström Almquist, YlvaBerg, Lisa

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