Longitudinal associations between parental trauma-related symptoms and adolescent emotion regulation: a three-wave dyadic analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Intergenerational trauma research has often treated transmission as unidirectional and static, overlooking dyadic and reciprocal processes. This study applied a three-wave longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to examine bidirectional associations between parental trauma-related symptoms and adolescent emotion regulation (ER) difficulties.

METHODS

A total of 247 parent-adolescent dyads from Syrian refugee and Jordanian host-community families in Jordan completed three waves over six months. Parents reported lifetime trauma at T1; both parents and adolescents reported ER difficulties at T1, T2, and T3. Distinguishable-dyad APIMs estimated autoregressive, actor, and partner effects with FIML and covariates.

RESULTS

Parental trauma at T1 significantly predicted offspring ER difficulties at T2 (β = 0.23), mediated longitudinally by parent ER at T2. Offspring ER at T1 also predicted parent ER at T2 (β = 0.12), but this child-driven effect did not persist to T3. Refugee status did not moderate the transmission paths.

DISCUSSION: Intergenerational trauma appears to operate as a dynamically co-constructed dyadic process. Findings support process-focused, dyadic interventions rather than treating adolescents in isolation.