Thus, our aim is to examine mental illness diagnoses (including onset age and types) and intergenerational patterns of child protection services involvement using longitudinal population-based linked administrative data from Queensland (QLD), Australia. Moreover, we know little about whether the relationship between mental illness and child maltreatment varies based on age at onset or type of mental illness, which is largely due to methodological limitations, such as small sample sizes that preclude disaggregation. Specifically, little research has examined the four distinct pathways of (dis)continuity: cycle breakers (individuals with a maltreatment victimization history who are not subsequently responsible for maltreatment to a child), cycle maintainers (individuals with a maltreatment victimization history who are subsequently responsible for maltreatment to a child), cycle initiators (individuals with no maltreatment victimization history who are responsible for maltreatment to a child), and a comparison group (no maltreatment). Despite this, minimal research has examined mental illness in the context of intergenerational child maltreatment. Furthermore, 22% to 80% of parents involved in the child protection system (CPS) are estimated to have experienced mental illness (Higgins et al., 2021). Half of depression and anxiety cases worldwide may be attributable to child maltreatment victimization (Li et al., 2016). Our findings underline the need for early access to mental health supports for families involved with the child protection system, which could help prevent the cycle of maltreatment. Cycle maintainers and cycle initiators received the highest rates of diagnoses (50% and 38.8%, respectively), compared to cycle breakers (21.1%) and the comparison group (7.7%). The prevalence of mental illness diagnoses significantly differed across the intergenerational patterns. Overall, 10.4% of individuals had at least one hospital admission involving a mental illness diagnosis. Multinomial and logistic regressions were conducted to investigate whether the mental illness diagnosis variables distinguished the four intergenerational patterns of child protection service involvement.

Any mental illness diagnosis, age at onset (adolescence or adulthood), and diagnosis types (common, severe, personality disorders, childhood-onset, adolescent- and adult-onset, and substance use) were examined. Child protection data were obtained from the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs and mental illness diagnoses were obtained from Queensland Health hospital admissions. Methodsĭata were drawn from an administrative population-based data repository in Queensland, Australia and includes 32,494 individuals identified as biological parents. Existing research is limited and inconsistent, and rarely incorporates multiple categories of mental illness or considers variation between mental illnesses. This study examines the relationship between mental illness diagnoses and four intergenerational patterns of child protection services involvement: cycle breakers, cycle maintainers, cycle initiators, and a comparison group (no maltreatment).

Cycle of intergenerational trauma