Parental domestic violence and abuse, mental ill-health, and substance misuse and the impact on child mental health: a secondary data analysis using the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Abstract

Background - Parental domestic violence and abuse (DVA), mental ill-health (MH), and substance misuse (SU) can have a negative impact on both parents and children. However, it remains unclear if and how parental DVA, MH, and SU cluster and the impacts this clustering might have. We examined how parental DVA, MH, and SU cluster during early childhood, the demographic/contextual profiles of these clusters, and how these clusters relate to child MH trajectories. Methods - We examined data from 15,377 families in the UK Millennium Cohort Study. We used: (1) latent class analysis to create groups differentially exposed to parental DVA, MH, and SU at age three; (2) latent growth curve modelling to create latent trajectories of child MH from ages 3–17; and (3) a case-weight approach to relate latent classes to child MH trajectories. Results - We identified three latent classes: high-frequency alcohol use (11.9%), elevated adversity (3.5%), and low-level adversity (84.6%). Children in the elevated adversity class had higher probabilities of being from low-socioeconomic backgrounds and having White, younger parents. Children exposed to elevated adversity displayed worse MH at age three (intercept=2.274; p<0.001) compared the low-level adversity (intercept=2.228; p<0.001) and high-frequency alcohol use class (intercept=2.068; p<0.001). However, latent growth factors (linear and quadratic terms) of child MH did not differ by latent class. Conclusions - Parental DVA, MH, and SU cluster during early childhood and this has a negative impact on children’s MH at age three, leading to similar levels of poor MH across time. Intervening early to prevent the initial deterioration, using a syndemic-approach is essential.