Adverse childhood experiences and adolescent mental health: The moderating role of parent-child relationships.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the moderating role of the mother-child and father-child relationship on the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health problems from childhood through to early and late adolescence. ACEs can detrimentally affect mental health later in life, but protective factors-including parent-child relationship quality-can alleviate some of these effects. We used data from a large, nationally representative, longitudinal study to conduct preregistered analyses examining the relationship between ACEs experienced before 9 years of age on mental health problems in childhood (age 9), early adolescence (age 13), and late adolescence (17/18 years) among children in Ireland (n = 8,568), controlling for child gender and household social class. We also explored the role of parent-child relationship quality in moderating these associations. ACEs predicted poorer mental health in late childhood, early adolescence, and late adolescence. Mental health problems decreased over adolescence, but contrary to our hypothesis, the rate of that change was not impacted by ACEs. Mother-child but not father-child relationship quality moderated the association between ACEs and mental health. The results indicate that the association between ACEs and mental health persists through later childhood and adolescence. Interventions to support and strengthen mother-child relationships may be especially useful for the mental health of children who have experienced ACEs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).