The period of risk for childhood mental health problems begins well before birth, extending into the preconception years of the parents. Adverse childhood experiences (e.g., parental mental illness or criminal justice contact, maltreatment, poverty) therefore often have their genesis in the parents’ own adolescence or early adulthood, with effects that cascade into the early years of offspring development. Research using the NSW Child Development Study (NSW-CDS) has determined observable risk for mental illness in childhood that reflects these intergenerational influences. The NSW-CDS is longitudinal multi-agency record-linkage study that is following a population cohort of >91,000 children from birth to adulthood (current age 17-18 years), with parent data spanning over 50 years that provides rich information on familial mental health, justice and child protection contacts that may predate the birth of the offspring.
This presentation will showcase findings from this unique Australian study which suggests the need for greater focus on reducing intergenerational adversity to break the cyclical transmission of risks for mental disorders from one generation to the next.
Melissa Green is Professor in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, and Director of Research in the School of Clinical Medicine. She is the Scientific Director of the NSW Child Development Study and has special interests in the role of trauma as a risk factor for psychosis, incorporating both biological and ecological perspectives. Melissa serves on the Research Advisory Councils of Beyond Blue and the Psychosis Australia Trust. Her research informs inter-agency government responses at the nexus of childhood mental health and child protection policy. She has received international awards from the US Rockefeller Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science for her work in this area.
